Public speaking is a necessary and universal skill that is in high demand in today’s knowledge and service economy. And yet, it is the number one fear that people have–even higher than DEATH!
Being able to speak to groups with confidence, clarity and personal influence is essential for career development and occupational success across all sectors of the economy. Sales presentations, pitching proposals to corporate executives, leading a workshop, presenting a professional paper at a conference, testifying at a trial, conducting group facilitation as part of a job interview, there are innumerable situations where public speaking skills will be called into play. Just ask any business leader, sales associate, attorney, teacher, manager, job applicant or consultant how important is public speaking to their success and you will find confirmation for this point of view.
Unfortunately, many people suffer from performance anxiety that causes a range of physical and emotional symptoms that prevent you from doing your best. You probably know how it feels–dry mouth, pounding heart, trembling hands, cognitive dulling, self-consciousness–it’s different for everyone but the result is the same–diminished performance. Many people have avoided public speaking for much of their lives and have simply learned to avoid those situations. This is truly unfortunate. It represents a barrier to your personal and career development. Also, we know from psychological research that when we avoid something that we know in our hearts we should face, we suffer a silent injury to our self-esteem. Over time, avoidance and withdrawal from facing challenges weakens our commitment and self-confidence and undercuts our ability to perform well in other areas.
However, the good news is that performance anxiety is highly treatable–without medication–and requires only a small commitment of your precious time. Performance anxiety is caused by an excitation of the sympathetic nervous system which responds to perceived threats, thereby triggering a range of physiological reactions that inhibits performance. Performance is read by the brain as a threat to your self. Now we know that standing up in front of people to speak is not a life or death situation. But your brain reads it as a threat-whether you like it or not. Now there is new research that shows how we can treat performance anxiety using three new techniques that can neutralize anxiety.
Click on the video below to see how the BrainScripting program was used with Jaime, a medical device saleswoman, who had a long-standing public speaking phobia.