Losing control?

Today I would like to write about the presentations we did on the topic of our research. Telling the truth, it was a difficult for nearly all of us to speak in front of the large audience. As a matter of fact, our teacher invited expats to our presentations. All in all, we had 5 presenters, and one of them was me. Giving a presentation in front of an audience requires the art of public speaking. And I proved it to myself again. If you lack communication skills, you worry lot about it. The art of public speaking requires continuous efforts of the development and practice. Making an effort always goes hand by hand with practice.

So, today I had one effort made for self-improvement of public speaking. I should admit, it was good. Of course, I cannot know it myself, that was what my classmates told me. However, the main evaluation will come from the experts, who experienced it and is still experiencing in their lives.

The most important thing we should learn while speaking in front of the audience is controlling your fear. I have read so much about such kind of fear, and it does help me a lot. And today’s presentation was a good example of it. Like other presenters I worried so much about my presentation. Though I worked with all possible fears, I still couldn’t concentrate on the main point and sit quiet. If a person looks at me, he will feel nothing about my fear, because I do not have my hands shaking, I do not have my voice trembling and I have no hysterics as well. But if you only know what is going on inside me?! I can possibly control all the fears that occur before a presentation, but when it comes to the time to do a presentation, you feel how you lose control over fears. Accordingly, the fears begin appearing on your appearance, letting the audience know your real inner feelings. That’s what I passed ( possibly passed over). This victory came quite after reading more about fear of public speaking. You can go the earliest posts to find out more about glossophobia.

Do not think that reading won’t do so much good for you. It is a big mistake. If you know the secrets of making presentations, you will possibly find your own ways to cope with the problem. One of the reasons I made a presentation in front of the people is dealing with fear and practicing to cope with it effectively. Having done something in the most difficult level from the first try makes easier you next try in a less difficult situation. So do not blame your destiny or  people if something gets to you with lots of hardships and efforts. Remember, the life wants you to learn.

Recently, I have found a way to keep your voice balanced during a presentation. Let’s, first, go to the root of the problem. Your voice trembles, because there is a fight between the process of continuous speaking and air that seeks a way out from your lungs. So, what do we usually do in such a case? We keep speaking and speaking and speaking. Why do we do so?  – Because we know that pause will make our audience think that I forgot your words. So, your inner voice is trying to assure you “It is not so, I know all the words. And I won’t stop, I won’t make my audience to get a false thought.” Though you do not realize that you make that fight (speaking process vs. air) worsen, which causes  a tremble. So, I want to advice if you feel it, simply make a pause and let the air out. Otherwise, you will lose a part of what you have been doing well.

It is not a dead advice. I assure you, it works.

 

How to deal with glossophobia

To do research requires a great deal of investigation from you. Once I read a poster that said “Stealing from one author is plagiarism, stealing from several authors is an investigation”. If you work with several works at a time, in the end you will end up with your own idea, your own thoughts about what you have read and your own conclusion you made after reading. If you have a burden to do research, you won’t notice how the list of the references gets longer and longer. So, you are asked to do research, think carefully before you choose a definite topic. Having found a topic of your interest, try to sum up as many thoughts as possible. The more you read about your topic, the more successful your final paper will be. Only on the basis of a thorough investigation one can give an awesome presentation. Giving a presentation is even harder than doing research. You should explain and show your process of investigation and explain what you get after it. Your thoughts can be mixed as much as you want during research. However, your final research paper should have clear ideas and conclusions. And your presentation should be clearer than your paper. If you are going to give a presentation make it more specific, but not too.

So, your presentation text is ready, but there are many other things you should pay attention to. The next step for you then is show your presentation in a way that will play ti your profit. You can do public speaking using ppt presentations, pictures, short video clips or different handouts. Also you can use board to draw what you are speaking about on.

Having prepared all the necessary data about your investigation and getting ready with your type of presentation, you should work a little bit with yourself. Yes, you heard right – with yourself! Among lots of fears glossophobia – the fear of public speaking – takes the first place. It means that thousands of people are scared to speak in front of the audience. Actually, they are not afraid of the audience, they are afraid of themselves. People, who are about to give a presentation, feel fear, because they doubt confidence about their words, body language. If you know there are dozens of “what ifs” that cause nervousness inside, which appears outside a second later.What if I forget my words? What if I lose control upon my voice? What if I am asked a difficult question? What if a computer won’t work? … If I don’t stop here, I will have my post to contain only what ifs. The length of the list depends upon the nervousness of a presenter. The more worried he is, the longer his list is.

What is interesting all these fears are the results of our false imagination. Sometimes false imagination helps a person so much. Imagine that you missed something important, and don’t know what kind of punishment you will get from the boss. In mind, you have already dismissed yourself, deprived your bonuses and so on and so forth. So, guilty and ashamed, you come to the office, and your boss asks you why you was absent. You offer excuses, try to explain away, but the boss doesn’t listen to you and simply says ‘ok’ with no reproach. And now compare what you thought during the way to the office and after this conversation.

However, only this kind of false imagination plays to your profit ( in the worst case, you will be made a remark), but if you think What if I forget my words? What if I lose control upon my voice? What if I am asked a difficult question? What if a computer won’t work? …, you, without noticing it, kill your confidence. And in the end, you will end up the way you thought and perhaps even worse.

Disarm your possible fears in advance: prepare remind-cards if you think you will forget the words; learn to control your thoughts, if you are afraid of making your voice tremble; you investigated this topic and you know more about it than your audience, so don’t be afraid of difficult questions; check your computer beforehand, so nothing would go wrong with it during your presentation.

That’s why you should learn to control your  feelings. Try to do the things you are afraid of. Learn to defend yourself from fear, learn to attack the fear!

Related Articles

• 9 Techniques to Delivering a Speech with Confidence (dumblittleman.com)