Overcoming fear of public speaking

Alone on some stage with a couple hundred pairs of eyes trained on you with intentse expectancy … and you...well, you promptly clam up, willing the words to come out but to no avail as ripples of mocking laughter start to infect the audience. Joseph discusses public speaking and on how to overcome stage fright.

There are times in life when you have to stand up in front of a group of people and say something. There are some of us who are really good at it, and there are those of us who panic our hearts out that all we do is blabber.
Not being able to speak in public is a big disadvantage. It is hard to make it in life if one cannot communicate to groups of people. When you have an idea, how will you tell others? How can you make announcements? How can crowds respect you? How can you get yourself heard? Communication skills are essential: in school, work environments, home, and almost everywhere. There is no a specific way of getting rid of panic, but I will share with you what measures I took to help me reduce and ignore my panic of public speaking. But first, what causes panic?
You are standing before many people, let us say a hundred, and all are quiet, waiting to hear your voice. They have an expectation, and you are worried whether you will be able to meet that expectation. It is quiet, you can hear a penny drop, and all the attention is on you. You can even hear your heart pumping blood. You have suddenly become the focus in the room. You are important! You don't want to make a fool of yourself or embarrass yourself. There are a billion things that could go wrong. Your heart starts to beat faster. You don't want to mess up. If there are important people in the audience then you worry even more! You could say something which is not on the paper. You could talk too fast or too slow. Your mouth might get dry and you cannot talk well. You can lose track of what you are reading. You might be too loud. You could make errors when reading. The tone of your voice might not be right. You could repeat words or mispronounce them. You could run out of breath when talking. You feel like going to the toilet.
There are many more things that could happen, and your mind does the favor of reminding you of all of them. You sweat and your heart beats fast. You run out of breath and you become tense. You mumble. Then at this point it is quite obvious that you mess it all up yourself. This is what panicking does to you, and it is very ugly when it ends up this way. So how can you avoid it? Here are some of the things I did which ended successfully.
First, I had to get the facts right. One: I am scared of talking to a public. Two: I don't want to be scared. Three: I want to overcome my panic. I had to decide between being public-shy for the rest of my life and mastering the art of talking to crowds. I chose to master it and I had determination. Without that determination, it is hard for someone to overcome fear of public speaking. What I did to overcome it is to set myself up whenever there was a chance to speak to a crowd. Whether it is debating club, or announcements, or volunteering to deliver famous speeches, I always put myself on the front line, so as to practice and overcome my fear.
Starting with a small group helps a lot. When you talk to small groups first, you become relaxed and your panic starts to die out and your confidence starts to build. Then the challenge is to keep on increasing your audience, by making announcements or making short comments. Usually when the audience increases, your panic gets revived, but nothing to worry about. You keep on talking to that audience until you get comfortable and you talk normally, and then increase it.
Practice in talking to crowds in different scenarios is something I found to be helpful. It gets you confident to talk to anyone without attaching yourself with any particular crowd.
Whenever I got a chance to speak to crowds I took it without thinking twice, and that way I boosted up my confidence. Does it mean I do not panic? Everyone panics, even Mandela panics! The trick is, Mandela doesn't show it.
When I go to the stage I tell myself that me and what I am about to say are the most important things in that room. I am going up there to impress myself and no one else. There could be important people, high profile guests, thousands of people, but my confidence stays the same, and I convince myself that I am not scared of any of them. I am not going to talk to impress them. I am going to go up there and speak like I have never spoken before. I am going up there to convince myself and no one else. I find such thoughts relaxing and help blood flow smooth. I started caring less of embarrassing myself. This way, fear gradually disappeared and confidence started to take over.
Getting over fear of speaking in public is a gradual process, and it doesn't happen overnight. Before you talk to a crowd, to relax yourself and to relax the audience, make a modest joke or a funny comment. Starting to talk when cheered up makes a big difference and removes tension. Changing your tones, looking at the eyes of the people seated next to you, give that talk and impress yourself!