Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking: Lesson 1 – It’s OK!
Did you know that babies (us) are born with only two fears? Loud noises and falls. Beyond those two fears, your subconscious was a blank slate. You learned all your other fears of someone else.
From birth to age seven we have little reasoning ability. We are like little recorders. Everything they told us was downloaded into our subconscious mind as fact.
This downloaded information was put there by people who loved him, like his parents and family members who wanted to protect him. You were bombarded with phrases like: “Don’t go near that water, you could drown!” “Stay away from that dog, it will bite you!” “Don’t get up there, you’ll fall and hurt yourself!” It’s no wonder so many of us are afraid of water, dogs, and heights!
It would be wonderful if our formative years were filled with positive, reinforcing comments like, “You’re so smart,” “You can do anything,” or “You’re so good at it.” Unfortunately, I know of few, if any, people who heard more positive things than negative during their formative years.
And so it is with public speaking. I highly doubt you’ve ever heard an adult loved one say, “I can’t wait to give that speech” or “I love standing in front of an audience.” You’re more likely to have heard things like, “Not me. I’m not going to speak at Grandma’s funeral,” or “Let someone else toast the wedding,” or “No way am I going to say anything at Grandma’s party.” Bob’s Retirement”. You learned to associate public speaking with pain, something to be avoided at all costs. After all, if the people who loved you hated it, you didn’t want anything to do with it either!
The real problem here is that our conscious mind (thinking, reasoning, decision-making) controls only about five percent of our daily lives. Our subconscious mind, which is automatic, operates our behaviors the other ninety-five percent of the time, which means ninety-five percent of the time you are living someone else’s life.
Isn’t it time you got rid of the irrational fear of public speaking that your father, a family friend, or Uncle Joe planted in your head 40 years ago?
Just as your fears have been installed in your subconscious, you can uninstall them with a variety of techniques. A good place to start is with repetition. “I am a confident speaker”, “No one knows the material better than me”, “I have great information to offer my co-workers”, “People respect my experience and want to learn from it”.
We live in a world driven by beliefs. You are what you think you are. Your beliefs control your life.
A great place to start changing your subconscious and your beliefs is Claude M. Bristol’s book, The Magic of Believing.
There is nothing wrong with you. Believe it.