Countless people suffer from a fear of public speaking, and it can affect their lives in a lot of ways. Kids may struggle in school because they can’t give oral presentations. Adults may struggle at work because they’re not able to voice and defend their ideas to management. While social phobia isn’t fun, it’s far from hopeless. We’ll offer some tips for public speaking anxiety in this article.
1. Acknowledge Your Fear
It’s okay to be afraid. Fear is normal. Human beings are inherently social creatures, so it’s a basic instinct to want to avoid judgment. It’s so common to focus on the negative that there’s a psychological term for it–negativity bias. Because of negativity bias, we’ll be aware of every mistake we make and it will stick in our minds. Meanwhile, those observing us may not even notice the mistakes, and will often ignore it or think of it as no big deal if they do.
2. Focus on Positives
After acknowledging your fear, you may find that it’s easier to redirect your thoughts. Instead of focusing on mistakes, try to think about what you’re doing right, and imagine yourself completing this task successfully. If it helps, you don’t even need to think of doing the speech successfully. You can focus on things that may happen after the speech. Reward yourself by getting ice cream afterward. Now, instead of the speech, you can think of the treat you’ll get after it’s finished. Pleasant thoughts like these can help you lower and control your anxiety.
3. Study and Practice
The most important part of any speech, and usually the toughest part as well, is writing the speech. Writing a good speech means understanding what you’re talking about and why. It’s also important to understand who you’re talking to and how to approach them with your speech topic. Those are just a few of the basics when it comes to public speaking. Among the best tips for public speaking anxiety is simply to practice. It may seem obvious, but it needs to be said. Knowing what you’re going to say can help assuage some of your fears. Meanwhile, going in without rehearsing can cause even greater anxiety, because now you need to remember it under pressure.
Tips for Public Speaking Anxiety
Public speaking is terrifying to many different people, but it doesn’t have to be. There are many tips for public speaking anxiety that can help you get through it with few complaints. We’ve mentioned some of our favorite tips in the paragraphs above, but there are many others. It’s all mind over matter anyway, so anything that you’ve found helps keep you comfortable may be worth trying. If you want more information and advice on business, entertainment, and other lifestyle topics please visit our site.
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