Public Speaking Tips: Handling Bad Experience on Public Speaking

“When it comes to public speaking it’s so easy to let one horrific experience become our permanent benchmark against which to measure ourselves from then on. With the die firmly cast, this negative mindset of just how helpless we are at speaking before groups becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Hey, we all have a bad experience now and then, but we tend to learn what ‘not to do’ next time. This insightful article will show you how to build on your speaking experiences in a positive way – be they good or bad…”

How to tackle your bad experience on public speaking?  Check out the below article.

If you want to overcome stage fright and learn to speak with confidence, join a toastmasters club.
You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.

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Public Speaking: Don’t Let a Bad Experience Define Your Speaking Potential!
By Laurie Smale

When it comes to public speaking, there are defining misfortunes that can haunt us for years. These disasters can literally define who we are as a speaker and set up ingrained habit patterns of speaking failure that become a self-fulfilling prophesy for years. Every time we feel threatened with a similar situation this defining experience creeps into our consciousness to remind us of the trauma that lies ahead and just how hopeless we are.

*Graham Skinner had always felt uneasy reading aloud in Primary school. In fact he managed to avoid doing anything in front of people right up to year ten, but this particular day there was no getting out of it. He had to deliver a talk on an article from the newspaper. “Skinner you’re next week’s speaker” he heard the teacher say. Absolute panic took hold of him. The mere thought of having to stand in front of the whole school at assembly terrified him. He told me that each night after that he’d lie awake in a cold sweat hoping it would just go away.

The night before his talk he realised he could avoid it no more. He sat down at the kitchen table and picked the smallest snippet he could find in the newspaper, stared long and hard at it, then put it in his pocket. This was the extent of his preparation. Continue reading →