You may have heard the popular saying that people fear public speaking more than death. Whatever the truth of that claim, there is no doubt that a fear of public speaking is very common. If you are scared or nervous about speaking in front of an audience, you can take heart that you are not alone.

Today, perhaps more than any point in history, effective verbal communication skills are essential to success in all types of businesses and workplaces. The majority of students and professionals in all walks of life are likely to be called upon to give a presentation at some point.

A fear of public speaking can hamper your performance or even worse, cause you to purposefully avoid situations where you may need to present in front of an audience. It can prevent you from getting your point across, from performing at your best and advancing your business or career. I know all this, because I myself have suffered in the past from the paralysing effects that a fear of public speaking can have on your life and career.

Change your focus

The first step on my journey to overcoming this fear was to change my perspective of the problem. If you are a nervous or fearful speaker then you are likely to have an aspiration to overcome my fear of public speaking, or something similar. It is this aspiration that you need to change before anything else. You need to change what you are trying to avoid e.g. I dont want to be scared of public speaking anymore to what you want to happen instead.

I am asking you to substitute a negative statement with a positive one. So your new aspiration might be something like I want to become a relaxed and professional public speaker. Once you have identified what it is you want in this positive way, then make it a firm goal by writing it down on paper. Review that goal every single day. Think about what it will mean, what you will hear, see and feel when it becomes reality.

If you keep on focusing on overcoming your fear of public speaking you may be creating what psychologists call a self-fulfilling prophecy. By focusing on what you positively want instead you create an impetus for changing the way that you think about public speaking and consequently the way you feel about it.

Your problem of public speaking is ultimately caused by the way you think. There is no doubt that you really are nervous and you may have physical effects just thinking about speaking in public. But, all these effects are directly caused by the way you think about presenting.

So my advice is to change the way you think about you fears before you do anything else. Focus on becoming great speaker rather than avoiding the fear and nerves. I am not claiming that by changing your focus and setting a positive written goal will solve you speaking nerves. I am saying that it is the first step.

Practical benefits

The result for me of this process was a real interest in public speaking and a desire to master the skills of presenting. It transformed public speaking from a real fear into one of the most engaging and interesting aspects of my life.

Once you change your focus, there are many other practical steps you can take to achieve your speaking goals. I will write about these steps in future articles, but for now, I suggest that you cultivate an interest in the subject, by reading books and articles about speaking and presenting. I also recommend that you join Toastmasters International. This fantastic organisation has thousands of clubs around the world providing a non-judgemental, practical education in public speaking for its members.

If you were attracted to this article because it is titled The first step to overcoming you fear of public speaking, then I suggest that in future you should look for articles that are titled How to be a great, confident presenter!.

Read more articles on Presentation and Public Speaking Skills at http://www.PresentationHeaven.com

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