Are you still having difficulties in overcoming your presentation fears? Here are possible solutions.

Are you still having difficulties in overcoming your presentation fears?

When I was gathering information and data to write “The Stage Fright Antidote!”, I found out that among the reasons why people were still having fears in making presentations:

Fear of not getting audience attention
Fear of being criticised
Fear of being looked at

If we are to look at these three elements of fears, they have got nothing to do about you as a presenter/speaker.  They are more of what people think of you.  

I would categorised these fears as the “lack of confidence”.  The lack of confidence, whether directly or indirectly, is the results of not meeting other people’s expectations of you.

In order to overcome this fear, developing self-confidence is the key.

For a start, let’s look at what Self-Confidence is.   I would define Self-Confidence as the belief in yourself and in your abilities.  If we believe in our own ability, we will not fear what other people will say about us.

The good news is, Self-Confidence can be learned.  It will take time and energy; and will require breaking of old habits but it will be highly useful trait to have. Here are possible solutions that you can do to develop self-confidence:

Forgive yourself and other people.  
The moment you forgive yourself and other people, you will let go of past mistakes and grudges which might have stopped you from being productive and a more confident person.

Have a paradigm shift.  
When you start thinking of self-criticism or negative thoughts, take a pause and shift that thoughts into positive ones.

Believe in your message.  
Recently, I had the opportunity to coach one of the secondary schools in a national debate competition.  The first thing I did as a coach was to ask the debaters to not to focus on the results (winning each match); but instead focus and believe in the messages they were about to deliver.  Once we believe in our messages, we will deliver it with passion.  The results (winning) will come, i told them.  With God’s grace, we won the annual national competition for the first time.  

Same thing in your presentation, believe in the message that you are going to present.  The belief will overcome the fear.

If you’d like to take a deeper dive into these areas, I would like to invite you to my upcoming workshop:

The Stage Fright Antidote! workshop:  Ninja Techniques to Present with Confidence, Connection & Conviction
Thursday 9 Nov 2017
9.30am - 1.30pm
Venue: tbc

Click the button below for the programme information & registration.

REGISTER

Article by Hazriq Idrus, Applied Creativity & Speaking Strategist;
Author, The Stage Fright Antidote!; Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd