If you want to overcome any phobia, the method is called systematic desensitization. It's what we have practiced successfully for years. It works best with people who can create supportive environments.
Quite frankly, public speaking isn’t for everybody.
It’s a lot of hard work. The audience could be hostile and inevitably, there are no guarantees about anything in life.
All that planning, preparation, and practice go out of your head once you raise your eyes to the audience.
It’s a bit risky really.
Standing up there in front of all of those disinterested souls, everyone just urging you to screw it up, so they can have their perverse pleasure in your demise.
People are like that. Watching you fail makes them feel good about themselves.
There’s something quite entertaining in seeing a competitive colleague squirm under the lights.
There’s nothing like a painful Q & A session where you can bait your colleague and make them feel ridiculous.
When we talk about worst-case scenarios and catastrophizing, we’re close to the mark here. I remember one presentation, the speaker was writing something on the board when a member of the audience threw a paper airplane toward the stage. As the speaker turned around, the missile hit him on the glasses. It could have seriously damaged his eyes. It had a paperclip on the nose cone. Everybody thought it was hilarious.
Of course, what is written above is fiction, pure fiction.
But as Nietzsche said, ‘The real world is much smaller than the imaginary,’ and in the words of eminent physicist Richard Feynman, ‘The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.’
You can tell yourself anything. Fact or fiction, if you believe it, it affects your behaviours.
That’s why philosophers and physicists spend so much time trying to work out how the world works.
Because when we know how things work, we can leverage the knowledge and power.
Just as you can when you understand how and why your body reacts in stressful ways.
As you read this, look around your room and observe your laptop, your TV, anything with electricity in it.
I imagine your tea or coffee was heated in an electric kettle and may be stored in a flask for a while to keep it hot.
Join me and end the siege…
When you leverage knowledge, you get great outcomes. Everyone’s a winner.
We know a lot about mind/body interaction. We know a lot about anatomy and physiology.
We know a lot about conscious and unconscious breathing.
We know a lot about speech construction and language. We know a lot about rhetoric and how to get great outcomes in speaking.
What’s holding you back?
If you’re anxious about public speaking, I promise you it’s just a story that you’re telling yourself.
Anxiety does not exist until you create it. Do you still believe in Father Christmas? Do you believe the earth is flat?
Do you believe that the sun revolves around the earth? Whatever you believe affects your behaviours.
I could tell you not to worry, and everything’s going to be ok. But you’re smart enough to know that that’s not the case.
If you want great results. You’ll have to work hard. You’re going to have to dig deep into your innate resources.
I’ll take you on a journey to find the person, the speaker, the leader that you know is held hostage in your mind.
Once the hostage is free, you’ll be unstoppable! Give it a try. You have nothing to lose.
Join me and end the siege…
