“The problem with speeches isn’t so much not knowing when to stop, as knowing when not to begin.” – Frances Rodman
There is a saying that if you are at a funeral and you are asked to give a speech, you want to switch places with the one from the casket.
Public speaking is the number one fear that we have. Or so I’ve heard. Have you ever asked why are we afraid of talking in front of a group of people? It’s just regular talking, we do it all the time, but when we have to talk in front of a group, we freeze.
I think it’s something regarding exposure and fear of failure. We expose ourselves when we are giving a speech. All the eyes are on us and we are feeling the anxiety. Giving a speech is a responsibility and we don’t want to fail and look bad in front of people. Who wants to look bad?
For a long time, I had a speech impediment. I was stuttering a lot. I don’t know why or how I got the stutter. But, because of this my self confidence got a huge blow as a child. You can imagine that I didn’t want to ever give a speech. What if I started to stutter in front of the whole group? But in time, I’ve managed to overcome this impediment and start to overcome my fears of speaking in public and giving speeches.
Why is public speaking important?
Boost in confidence. As I was saying, public speaking is the number one fear in the world. So when you overcome this hurdle, you will receive a huge boost in your confidence.
You will become more likable. Isn’t it nice when you have someone to talk? As I was saying above, public speaking is just regular talking. But because we have this “stage fright” we tend to freeze. When we start getting used to speaking in public, our overall speaking abilities will grow exponentially.
You will be able to learn more and share the things you know. Communication is what is separating us from the rest of the species of this world. Developing this ability, you will be able to communicate more efficiently and thus learning more from others and sharing the things you have learned.
We speak every day, so why not develop of set of skill that removes the barriers in our communication?
How to develop public speaking skills?
Practice. The first and the only advice that one might need. You can’t learn any other way than practicing. You have to go out there and talk.
I was saying that I was stuttering a few years ago. Even now, from time to time. But I've bitten the bullet and conquered my fear of giving speeches. And it did wonders for me.
I found a group of people, a student NGO, and there I’ve started my journey. We had weekly meetings and I was just raising my hand and answer questions. Soon I was talking in front of the group and after a year I was elected to the board. Now I had to give speeches every week in front of my own department in the organization.
My biggest accomplishment related to public speaking is giving a speech in one of my classes. We had to prepare a paper for this class and presented in front of the whole year (around 200 students). And my group voted me to give the presentation (figures). Of course, I’ve aced the presentation. I was in my 3rd year and with a lot of practice under my belt.
So, to develop your own public speaking abilities to try to find a group of people in front of whom to talk. A great way to start would be a Toastmasters group. Toastmasters is an international organization specialized in public speaking.
Or you can just give speeches to your friends or colleagues at work.
Just start practicing. Conquer your fears and don’t wait for something magical to happen because it won't.
“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Carl W. Buechner
Image source: Pixabay
This is Day 12 of the 30 days writing challenge during January 2017 launched by @dragosroua. If you want to join the challenge, here's the introductory article.
Essential skills in life is a series of articles regarding skills that I consider everyone should try to develop them. Some of them I have, some of them I'm working on. Please follow me @sstefan if you want to check the next post of the series.