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Overcome Fear of Speaking : Why?

Whether you cite 70%, or 60 - 70%, or 3 out of every 4, that

s an awful lot ofpeople that fear public speaking. Yes the statistics are a little muddy because somany studies and polls offer up numbers on the web, but the numbers continuallyfall in this range. So if the stats are correct, theFear of Speaking, a phobiaproperly identified asGlossophobia, also termed Speech Anxiety, affects most ofus. Well however you feel comfortable identifying it, the implications aredevastating. I find it interesting,That the very first act most of us take when we

re born, is to let out a blood-curdling scream, or some such thing. Then as we advance into childhood, mostof us can hardly keep a secret. We want to tell everybody everything.Immediately and constantly. Oh sure, some children are quiet, reserved, shy, andkeep to themselves. But if you think about it, that doesn

t describe most kids. No,Blabbermouth is an apt description. How often have we heard in school: Jack,Jill...

pick a name

, “Stop Talking!” or more persuasively, “Or I

ll send you to theOfﬁce!” The dreaded “Ofﬁce” where doom waits. Speaking is so ubiquitous,we

ve developed all sorts of phrases to curb or control it. Like,Shut Up! Don

t Speak Out of Turn. Button your lip! Hush. Shut your Face! Put aSock in it. Stop Talking! And so it goes, right up to the more genteel requests like:Please Be considerate of others and Be quiet. These and so many more, all in anattempt to get people generally, and children speciﬁcally, to stop talking.So what happens as we move into our teen years? Some behavioral changeoccurs because it

s at about that time that many teens cease participating inpublic discussions. Why exactly? Well exactly, there isn

t one deﬁnitive reason.Each person has their own personal reason which results in the decision to notspeak up in public forums. It

s one thing not to raise your hand if you don

t knowthe answer, but it

s something quitedifferent not to raise your hand if you do.A pattern of behavior begins to emerge which is continually reinforced, on intoadulthood. And this pattern can be identiﬁed as a phobia with the nameGlossophobia. And we all know that Phobias aren

t inexpensive to overcome. Infact, depending on the treatment sought, the cost can be quite high. But I want todiscuss another far more expensive, often overlooked cost with far reachinginsidious, damaging effects.

Take a look around. Can you remember a time that compares to the time we

reliving in today, in America? I can

t. And what I want to point out is that roughlytwo-thirds of our population don

t participate in public forums searching forworkable solutions. And it

s not because they can

t, because the FirstAmendment to the US Constitution guarantees they can. No,it

s because theysuffer with Glossophobia, the Fear of Speaking. Now let me be clear on thispoint.Not one time, ever, not in America, and not in Japan did anyone ever tell me thatthey were afraid to open their mouth and utter words in a public place. I

ve asked.According to my informal poll, Speaking in Public is quite alright. So, mostpeople, 60-70%, must see a substantive difference between Speaking in Publicand Public Speaking. I don

t. But there is a quantiﬁable gap, and how to bridgethe gap is worth a look.Well, telling people to be conﬁdent when they

re not, doesn

t suddenly result inthem being conﬁdent. Doesn

t work that way. No more then asking “Why don

tyou engage in Public Speaking” will produce an insightful answer. I

ll usually getan answer, but often a truthful answer is offered only after Trust is established.And what are these answers?I really don

t like my voice. People will think I

m stupid. I

m embarrassed, I

moverweight. My hair is too curly. I don

t want everybody looking at me. I getnervous and forget what I want to say. My opinion doesn

t matter. -This could goon ad inﬁnitum. The point is, well actually there are three.One is that sometimes the person will not know why. I generally take that as anunwillingness to tell me. But in fact, the person actually may not be able touncover the reason for their resistance. Two, the person actually can pinpoint thereason or cause and this becomes a springboard for behavior modiﬁcationthrough Coaching. And three, actually it doesn

t matter if the person does ordoesn

t know the reason(s) they decided not to participate in public forums.Knowing or not knowing the reason need not be the determining factor in aperson releasing or overcoming, their Fear of Speaking in public forums. As aﬁrst step to address this fear, I providea secure environmentand begin to buildTrust. Encouraging the person to stretch, sometimes literally, adding challengesto be overcome and techniques to be mastered can produce a dramatic, lastingturn-around in a relatively brief time. But, this method is not for everyone. Somepeople require a different approach.

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"Overcome Fear of Speaking - Why?"

"Fear of Speaking" which affects the majority of Americans, results in unacceptable costs for our future. Limited citizen participation can no longer be tolerated in a... (More)

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Category:	Speeches
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Upload Date:	08/09/2010
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