Public Speaking: 3 Fears that Keep Leaders Playing Small (& How to Play Bigger)-Part 1

Grow Big in your Vision

Public Speaking fears keep people playing small.  They hold competent people back from sharing their gifts with people who are waiting to hear and learn from them.  Do these 3 fears keep you playing small (hold you back from fully expressing your unique gifts) when you visualize yourself sharing your unique message in a public speaking format?

3 Public Speaking Fears that Keep you Playing Small

1. Making mistakes in front of others.  We hear our inner critics warn us against being judged.  “You should have done this better.  You should have done this perfectly.
2. Trying something new. If you are spurred to move beyond your speaking fears, it means trying something new. Learning new speaking skills; practicing different behaviors.  It’s scary because it’s new even if it’s HEALTHY.  Our conditioned selves want to be comfortable and stay the same even it’s UNHEALTHY.
3. Not getting a return on investment.  If you put in the effort, practice, and give your presentation, you risk unmet expectations.   You risk the outcome being different than what you expected.

Public speaking fears hold you back.  They keep you “playing small”. It’s critical to heal these fears—so you can shine your light and FINALLY be visible to your ideal audiences.  Let’s take a further look at how to move beyond these 3 public speaking fears.

How to Move Beyond your Public Speaking Fears

1. Grow into the bigness of your your gifts and your vision. Be open to the discomfort that it will cause.  Your smaller self/your conditioned self wants things to stay the same. Be willing to endure the discomfort temporarily.  Once you take steps to share your talents, experience, and personality with larger groups, you’ll see that the temporary discomfort was well worth it.
   
2. Re-frame the way you view “mistakes”. Get used to looking at new situations as learning experiments. There are many quotes about successful famous people who’ve made a lot of “mistakes.” They use them to learn what works and what to change if it doesn’t work.

Summary

Fears of public speaking keep people playing small.  They stifle people’s expression of their unique gifts.  The result is that other people miss out on what they offer.  These fears include making mistakes, trying something new, and not getting a return on the investment that it takes to successfully prepare to publicly speak.

Shift past your fears by re-framing the way you view mistakes, and growing into your big vision. Endure the temporary discomfort of stepping into new territory and behaviors, and making mistakes. By moving beyond your fears, you expose the truth hidden behind the lies your conditioned self tells you-that you’ll be hurt and will be unsuccessful in your public speaking experiences. Take a chance, do the experiment-get out there and speak! You’ll be surprised at how empowered you become.

To your success in moving beyond your public speaking fears,

Cher