How to Utilize Your Fear in Public Speaking

culled from:wikihow.com

Steps

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Prepare. But one of the reasons why we feel the emotion of fear is because it's giving us a message that we need to prepare. So prepare your speech. Use creativity and your talent. You may not realize it right now, but you do have the ability to turn things around. And you won't realize that until you believe in yourself.

• So how do you prepare?
  • Know how you want things to turn out. For example. You want to motivate your audience. Once you know that this is your objective for this session, you should immediately ask yourself, what can I talk about to make this happen? Then list your points, your idea. Many times, you need to relax to get the excellent Ideas. So try to relax. Again Use your inborn talent, your creativity and have fun in the process of your preparation.
  • Once you have prepared and done your best to present your speech, you will feel much better. Remember, some times, its all about the taking action part.
  
  
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     Visualize. This is probably one of the best tools you can use to go around your fear. Here is how it works. Let say you are invited to speak. Even though its weeks or months away from the day you are invited, you should visualize your performance. And you should visualize it in a positive way.
     • You can do it by shutting your eyes and seeing your audience in front of you. Visualize the end of your speech and see them smiling and clapping, giving you a standing ovation. This will sink in your subconscious mind as if it is the reality and will be the reality or as close as you vividly visualize it.
     • And by the way, see yourself as confident as possible. See yourself thinking, talking and acting in a confident manner and it will help in overcoming your fear.
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     Think of Service. When you stand to speak, one of the most important thing that supports your confidence is your Intensity of Purpose. And your Intensity of Purpose should be to serve others. If your mindset is programmed to serve others, you will forget your fear, because it will no longer about you, but your service to others.
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     Be Thankful. Remember, fear is one of the disempowering emotions. The good news is, you can turn this thing around. If emotion can be diminished and replaced by another, then it's possible to shift emotions from the negative feeling to feeling positive. And you can do that by being thankful.
     • Sincerely thank yourself, God, and everyone in the room. You don't have to let them know that you are thankful, but if you want to vocalize it, it can have an even greater results. So try it and see how better you feel. And focus on that feeling as well as the message you are trying to convey.
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     Conquer Your Fear. You've heard the saying, "If you can't beat them, join them." Well, don't do it this time. I don't suggest that you submit yourself in fear, because this is not a very good idea if you want to succeed. If you want to succeed, you must do what has to be done and in this case, you have to face your fear just like every successful speaker does. Fear is coming from the unknown experience, once you know the experience, the fear fades away. Running from fear can only intensify its negative effect in your life. So my advice to you is, get out of your comfort zone and be willing to feel clumsy and uncomfortable.