Where does fear of public speaking come from?

What can you do to conquer fear of public speaking?

Fear of public speaking is one of the most prevalent fears among all people and cuts across all cultures.

Let's take a closer look and figure out where fear of public speaking and what we can do about it.

Fear of Public Speaking - Early Beginnings:

For many of us, fear of public speaking was a learned response that started when we were school children.

For many people - me included! - fear of public speaking was due to a traumatic experience in school, and in my case it was when I had to give a presentation on a book report in the front of the class.

Being up in front of people at a young age is scary on a number of levels, and can leave deep impressions or even scars that make fear of public speaking a lifelong fear, or even phobia.

Due to those early scars, many people avoid any situation where they have to speak in public - they'll even let raises and promotions pass them by and fear of public speaking hurts their career.

The reality is that when we are school-age, we are hyper- sensitive to what our peers think about us. "Being noticed" often has negative repercussions such as teasing, taunting, or even bullying.

When we are fully matured adults, the opinions of our peers usually will still matter but to a much lesser degree; however, fear of public speaking often persists due to those early childhood negative experiences.

Because the opinions of peers matters much less to a mature adult, often that alone is enough to quell fear of public speaking and allow a person to deliver a presentation with a minimal amount of nervousness.

Further, many adults find that their fear of public speaking is much reduced than they had feared, and then actually find speaking to be a pleasurable or even exhilarating experience.

(In fact, that's been the experience of many of my students once they master some basic presentation skills I teach).

But, what should you do if you find that you are, even as a matured adult or a younger person, still fearful of public speaking situations?

First, I urge you to not give up if you've tried the "traditional" methods of getting rid of stage fright or fear of public speaking and they didn't work for you.

Unfortunately, much of the "traditional advice" out there on how to conquer fear of public speaking is almost totally useless.

Give the techniques in other articles here on my web site a try, you'll find that these techniques actually work because they're not simply rehashed versions of traditional advice.

Take a look at the various other articles I've posted here, and more importantly use those techniques.

If you do, soon you'll be able to say good-bye to fear of public speaking forever.