Fear Of Public Speaking Has Negative Effects On Careers And Personal Life

I am sure you know that the fear of public speaking has negative effects on careers and your personal life too. 

If you have a good public speaking skills, you can present your ideas more effectively and  people love to listen to what you have to say. 

You will be more visible to decision-makers in your company. All these can help you in your career advancement.


We all know that  giving a speech is stressful experience for most people. 

It is a fact that you will always have the fear of public speaking and you just have to accept it. 

What you need to do is you have to learn how to harness it and speak with confidence.

Experiencing a little nervous  before speaking to a group or crowd is a natural reaction. 

But if you are gripped with fear until you can't even squeak a word, then you have a problem which need to be addressed.

So, what to do about fear of public speaking

Before you can reduce your fear of public speaking, you have to identify and understand your speech anxieties.

Basically the common fear is you worry how badly you will perform, how your audience will react, you may not meet their expectations or you make a fool of yourself.

There are various elements which causes your fear of public speaking phobia. 

For instance, the size of your audience, how well you know them, your speaking experience, how well you know your content and also the importance of the occasion.

As I have said earlier, what you can do about speech anxieties is you have to identify and understand what is your fear is all about. 

Could it be because you do not have a good understanding of the subject matter, or is it because you are not familiar with the audience?

Once you can identify where your problem lies, you act on it. See what you need to do to overcome this stress factor.

Here are tips which can help you to overcome your fear of public speaking.

The first thing you got to know is you don't need to be perfect in public speaking. 

You can be average. 

You can be below average. 

You can make mistakes, get tongue-tied, or forget whole segments of your talk. You can even tell no jokes at all and still be successful. 

Do not pressure on yourself to deliver a perfect speech or a brilliant presentation.

The key thing is give your audience the desired message or information. 

That's all there is to it. 

You may fluff a line or two along the way or your intended joke may may nor elicit any laughter from your audience people. 

They really don’t care if you mess up. As long as they get something of value, you have done your job.

I am sure you have read about the visualization of success. 

It is about imagining yourself performing a task successfully. 

Yes, you can also apply visualization technique to overcome your fear of public speaking.

An effective way to control the fear of public speaking is learn to control your breathing. 

Take a slow long deep breath and hold it there for two seconds, then exhale it slowly. 

Do it a few times, as this can help to calm your nerves.

The other thing you can do is stretching. 

It helps to relieve your tensed up muscle. 

You can also roll your head side to side or a 360 degree turn clockwise and anti clockwise.

One of my favorite way to relieve my tension before a speech is to do mouth exercise. 

You distort your mouth to either side of your face as if making nasty or naughty faces at someone. Do it a couple of times. 

Another way to get rid of nervousness is move around as if you are having a stroll. Pace around, make a few trips up and down the flights of stairs, just to loose up your body. 

Get over with your fear of public speaking and be an effective speaker who gives powerful speeches or impressive presentations.