Would you dare to speak in public? Follow these easy mantras!!

Invariably the instant answer would be a “Startled No” and immediately lot of butterflies would start flying in our belly. The reason being, we are not prepared and equipped to speak before an audience / public. I remember a joke, when a group of tourists visit the Niagara Falls and are accompanied by a guide. The guide says, I welcome you all to the Niagara Falls, these are the world’s largest waterfalls and the sound intensity of the waterfall is so high that the sound of even 20 supersonic planes passing by can’t be heard! Now may I request that the ladies in the back keep quiet so that we can hear the falls! Even the most talkative women would hesitate to speak when asked to!!

Fear

The moment when we go to the podium / dais, we get frightened that all the eyes are focused on us and we feel like walking into a lion’s den. We are comfortable in the audience seat but when we walk to the stage, fear grips us and we tremble to speak. We fumble and forget what we want to speak or what we wanted to convey and always hurry to leave the stage at the earliest and come back to sit in the comfortable audience chair.

How to overcome the fear or calm down the flying butterflies in our belly?

The first step to overcome the fear would to remain in “our senses” and not to worry about the outcome. Worrying about the outcome is where the pressure creates or starts in us and the adrenaline starts flowing / pumping. The actions of adrenaline include increasing the heart rate, increasing blood pressure, expanding the air passages of the lungs and thereby altering the body’s metabolism. To overcome the fear and to calm down the butterflies flying in your belly, relax yourself and never ever think about the outcome that it would be negative. Once you negate the first psychological barrier, and then move onto the next stage. Start better equipped, what to talk, how to talk, when to talk and present you in a successful way.

Speakers are not born, they are made

Similar to the question of whether leaders are born or made? speakers are definitely made and not born. Anyone entering this world is a naive speaker, few grab the opportunity, utilizing the grabbed opportunities and they become good speakers. So, if you haven’t started, let us start the journey of Public speaking or communicating. Seize the opportunity, if you have to speak at any school function or at your apartment meeting or in the kitty party or in a get together. One can start with a simple speech for a shorter time and then go to lengthier time speech. Even the greatest speakers on the earth had butterflies flying in their stomach. They got trained, siezed the opportunities and got experienced to speak freely. So, don’t compare with others. If you are able to communicate what you wanted to, do it in your own style.

Getting ready

Let us learn the basics of communication through the slides- the preparation, delivery, preparing yourself, techniques of attracting attention, techniques of ending, how to handle the questions, how to treat the questioner, designing your answer, body language.
 
After pedaling the flow, and then one can go in a full swing and impress others. Get, Set, Go!!!
 
Good luck guys!!!

“When you are able to communicate your thoughts freely and effectively in any language and when the listener has understood it fully, that is the end game of your communication”.

Muthu

Note-The images given for representation in this blog are taken from Google Images. Many thanks for Google.