overcome my fear of public speaking

I took the first steps in accomplishing this goal!

I just gave a speech and read the book How to Develop Self-Confidence & Influence People by Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie [link]

1. Practice and preparation are the key to getting over nervousness.
2. Be natural and talk like a human being! Be enthusiastic and spontaneous – your personality is important to giving a successful speech.
3. To hold people’s interest, you want to have concrete examples and talk about stories, rather than about generalities or abstractions. You have to relate your point/message back to the audience because we care about ourselves. People want to know how this affects them.

For the last 3 years, I’ve thought the way of accomplishing this goal was through Toastmasters. Friends had suggested this club to me, but I’d never had the courage to actually act on it. I finally broke down and joined very early last year, but stuff happened and I never even gave a presentation for that group before dropping out.

In hindsight, this result was my fault. I could’ve transferred to another TM club when my job moved, but I didn’t. I even gave a presentation last year at work, and it honestly was decent… but I absolutely dreaded every moment leading up to it. I was extremely nervous, and I really can and should do better.

I’ve since got into contact with a Toastmasters group, and I will be joining again, despite my complete discomfort with it.

This is just completely embarassing to admit to, but my worst fear is public speaking. I’ve had this problem for years, and I’ve never sat down to focus on beating it.

Whenever I’ve had to give a presentation, I’ve always done everything in my power to avoid it. When forced to do one, I dread every moment until after it’s over. Immediately preceeding the event, my heart races, and I get all tense. My mouth gets totally dry, and I say “umm” every other word.

I went all through college like this, and now I’m in the workforce with this problem sabotaging any chance I have at success. I’ve tried getting away with communicating my ideas via email, but people just delete them. So, I’m faced with being ignored, or stepping up and saying something in meetings and speeches.

I certainly can’t continue like this in my current job, where I’m a nervous wreck whenever a presentation comes up.