My First Life Lesson

The fear of public speaking can prevent people from attending events that focus on individual attention and can limit the opportunities required for the progress of their career. According to Pillay (2016), “Fear is your brain's alarm system that is triggered by sudden motions, sounds, or anything that could threaten your safety or survival (para, 2). Fear is not always bad. Primitive reaction to fear is to either take flight, meaning avoid the situation that causes fear or to fight, meaning stay and face the situation to the best of one’s ability. There are mainly two reasons why people fear speaking, first is when they are not prepared and second is that are too concerned about themselves

There is no question that after giving about four speeches, I have become a much better overall public speaker. In the beginning of the semester, I would tend to get nervous during some of my speeches and consequently the delivery of my speech would be greatly affected. If I had made a mistake, my level of nervousness would drastically increase and I wouldn’t know how to correct it. Although today I have improved on these aspects. Normally in order to control my nerves I try to think as positively as possible. This is critical because when I start to think even a little bit negatively then I severely hurt my chances of giving a good speech. Instead today, my main priority is to stay very confident and tell myself that I’m going to perform fine.

All through my JROTC career, I have had to break down barriers of fear and nerves. Starting my freshman year, the fear of public speaking was an obstacle sitting in my path to become a leader. I would always maintain silence during a meeting, and would never dare to voice my opinion in front of a crowd. However, as I continued to rise in my leadership positions, I grew more self-confident. I

Transitioning from the teen years to adulthood and two near death experiences has allowed me to establish a spiritual relationship with God. The first experience occurred when driving on a country roads with deep curbs don’t remember what happen but my car somehow flipped on one side in a ditch and

I was a very shy and quiet kid compared to others growing up. Submerged among my peers and lost in the crowd, I felt more at ease and found myself mostly at home where the attention drifted far away from me. However, when teachers asked me to speak before the class or answer questions, uneasiness flooded me as though I stood before hundreds of strangers. While speaking, my different bonds of friendship to each and every person sitting in the room disappeared as apprehension controlled me and my voice shook with fright. This fear of public speaking came from my experiences during the first few years elementary school. When I attended Mission Park Elementary School, in 5th grade unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy reading. After a few months in class

Some instances of these fear are: missing important points, inability to answer the questions, lack of communication and being rejected by the group based on the background. In order to overcome these fears presenter needs to speak with confidence which can be gained through practicing and rehearsing before the presentation as the audience can easily spot the signs of a presenter without confidence. In addition, presenter needs to be in control of his mind by rehearsing before the presentation. Maintaining a strong eye contact is also very important. This can be achieved by not looking at someone for too long but also not shifting eye contact or scanning the audience very quickly. Wearing clean and comfortable clothes can contribute to self-confidence and projecting a good image. A presenter must be careful not to reveal their shortcomings by addressing their weaknesses and stating their nervousness about speaking in

Actually, not too long ago I was reasonably confident and had no problems with talking to people. This all changed the day we were given the assignment of a presentation. The word presentation already sends shivers down my spine thinking about it. Everyone hates them, right? Not me. Not when I was in first year anyway. Truth be told I was ecstatic to do this presentation, I loved speaking infront of others, forcing them to laugh at my "witty" jokes and boring them to death with things I considered interesting. When the word "presentation" or "solo talk" was mentioned, I used to jump for joy. Now, I shrink into my seat and stare at my desk, hoping it will go away. I would spend hours on talks, preparing them and memorising them. A few years down the line I would find myself struggling to write notes as I begin to think about standing in front of an audience, causing my heart to beat rapidly and my hands to shake. It's not fair, really. Even now I still panic when trying to think of what to say, as it has to be

I always stress myself out before, and during these experiences. I'd love to say that having my first oral-only presentation got me over my fear of public speaking. But it didn't. Today, though, I can say that I remember the days leading up to the presentation much better than I can remember actually presenting. While this experience didn't change my fears, it did change the way I will go into future presentations or public speaking requirements. Maybe the nerves going into something like this will die down slightly if I think about how short the thing I'm dreading will actually be. I think that this presentation experience sort of sums up my first semester of high school. I came into this school terrified. Even though there have been struggles in the time I have been here, they haven't been nearly as bad as I initially

Claudia Stepanovich gave me a message through power point that I completely agree with and that is that public speaking is not a skill you are born with; it is something that you have to learn and get better at. This message spoke to me, because I am extremely nervous about public speaking and I always avoid it when I can; when I can’t avoid it I always get nervous and start to stutter and forget information.

Public speaking is often described as the most common fear in the world. It is also something that many people are required to do. It may be to give a toast at a wedding, to present a seminar at work, to make an argument to a local council, to receive an award or to be interviewed by a board of directors for a job. Public speaking is something few people can avoid and yet it continues to be a major fear. To understand this fear and how it can be managed and prevented, the issue will now be looked at in more detail. This will begin with a definition of public speaking anxiety and a discussion of the

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." As Henry Adams stated, and is the summary of the impervious bond between the characters Mitch and Morrie, in Tuesdays with Morrie. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease is a form of motor neuron diseases. It is a rare disorder in which the nerves that control muscular activity degenerate within the brain and spinal cord. What results is weakness and wasting away of the muscles. The cause is unknown. About one to two cases of ALS are diagnosed annually per 100,000 people in the US. (Lou) Sufferers will notice weakness in the hands and arms accompanied by wasting of the muscles (Motor). The weakness

Public speaking is a fear faced by over 75% of the Earth’s population. In fact, 5.3 million of Americans today face social phobia and speech anxiety. Commonly referred to as “glossophobia”, speech anxiety is fear people face when delivering speeches and/or lectures to large audiences. The article, “Conquer Fear of Public Speaking through Emotional Intelligence”, written by Gleb Tsipursky, provides people with expert advice on how to conquer their speech anxiety. As someone who presents ideas and projects on a daily basis, I have started to conquer my speech anxiety. When I first moved to Hillsborough in 2013, I was petrified when delivering my student council speech. No one knew me, and I only had a scant amount of friends. I patently remember being extremely

During my academic journey, public speaking has always been an extreme fear. When I enrolled at Thomas Nelson Community College, the first question that I asked was do I have to take Public Speaking. My experience with talking in front of people resulted in hot pepper colored face, blacking out, dizziness, or nausea. In Spring of 2016, I went ahead and enrolled in Professor Fotinos’s class just to get it over with. As class day one approached, fear and anxiety started to rise. When the first speech day came, I volunteered to go with the first group so that I was done and the anxiety wasn’t building up. As I was doing my speech, I thought of what Professor Fotinos told the class to do and calmed down. The more speeches that I did, presenting

Throughout life we express ourselves through words. The way we present ourselves through speech says a lot about our character. The way one speaks to others can jeopardize the amount of respect and trust others have for them. From the way one pronounces a word to their posture can affect the way an audience interprets what is being said. Personally, I am not confident with my speaking skills at this point. I would like my audience to fully comprehend the concepts or facts that I would present to them. In order to do so I must improve my speaking skills I believe that a problem most people, including myself, have when giving speeches is facing an audience. Just looking out to an audience of a mere ten

Another interesting experience that helped me gain confidence was my speech communications class with my professor, Mrs. Larson. I knew I didn't have any trouble with talking to a group of people. I love to tell jokes and stories to many people at one time, but I was nervous and somewhat embarrassed about preparing some boring speech and making everyone else suffer by listening to it. Mrs. Larson explained that we all have problems with this and that it can be overcome. I remember something simple she said that stuck in my mind: "The only way to get over the fear of something is to just do it." She was right. As I had to go up to give the speech, her words constantly kept running through my mind. After the speech, I realized that we were all in the same boat suffering from the same seasickness- nervousness, We all had to give speeches. No one was out to criticize anyone else and we all ended up supporting each other! I learned that I could make a "boring" speech interesting if I have fun with it and feel comfortable as the speaker of the moment.