To speak or not to speak

"All the great speakers were bad speakers at first" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Picture this! You wake up on a fine Saturday morning, go about your regular routine and then suddenly get an email notification. You open it to find out that its the interview call for the job you've always dreamt about! You are ecstatic and start preparing your best for answering all the possible interview questions. You are well prepared by your interview day. You get there, the interviewer asks you some technical questions related to your job role. Then, all of a sudden he says "Okay, tell me about yourself" And you just freeze at that question and start wondering "What do I say now?!"

Now, picture this. You are at your best friend's wedding and the host calls up your name and asks you to say few words about your best friend. Do you freeze again? Does your heart start racing and skin feel cold?

The above two experiences you had or may have is called a "Stage fright" which is the fear of speaking in front of an audience. Almost 80% people face this.

When I was a child, I was afraid to even answer my name to other people. I was academically good but never voluntarily raised my hand to answer a question. Since I was academically good, I was often asked to represent my house in debate or elocution competitions. However, I always denied. What a terrible loss when I look back now! Nobody encouraged me at that point or taught me how I can get over it. I love talking and making friends but if you'd have asked me to speak in front of the same group of friends, I'd never do that.

Fast forward years later, during my engineering days, we got a subject in the first year called "Communication skills" Now, I always loved anything related to language or communication, so naturally I was quite excited. But the real deal came when we were supposed to speak in front of the whole batch for our exams! 😯 A prepared speech and an impromptu! As usual, my fear quickly creeped in. But I had to pass! So I gathered all my courage and spoke. And while I spoke, I just wanted time to stop and everyone to suddenly become still. But guess what! 😃 I got good feedback for my speech. I was happy! That was an enlightening period for me wherein I realized my hidden potential.

Since that day, whenever possible, I volunteered to speak wherever I could and realized that I speak well when I am the least prepared!

The most important factor that leads to this fear is that we think we'd be judged. "They may laugh at me, make snide remarks, I might freeze, I might speak wrong" The day you stop bothering about what others think about you, your life improves three-fold. Just get up to that stage, look towards a neutral place and start speaking away! Speak whatever that comes to your mind! Add some humour, catchy phrases, engage your audience!

Today, I am confident enough that I can speak in front of an audience. However, I still have a long way to go when it comes to speaking in front of authority figures! I do get nervous, but the best way to get over it is to keep up the practice! I can talk hours on a topic I am interested in!

Today, I have joined a wonderful organization called the Toastmasters International" to polish my speaking skills and make them even better😉 I hope this journey takes me places and I can prove Ralph Waldo Emerson right😃

Let's talk! Hit me up! I promise to make it fun! After all, there's no tax on speaking 😋