Conquering Speaking Fears: Overcoming the Human Condition

Abstract

Chapter 3: Conquer Speaking Fears To what extent is speech apprehension part of the human condition? How much is it related to our sense of guilt and shame? Fear is a burden for many speakers as it adversely affects their self-esteem leading to speech apprehension. According to Schultze (2020), speech apprehension is a natural feeling that arouses nervousness in speakers, negatively impacting their preparedness to present a speech. Fortunately, when a speaker admits fear to others, it no longer affects them deeply. Citing an example from the text, Elie Wiesel holocaust survivor, admitted his fears by acknowledging them, writing about them, and kept moving despite the noted fear, thus enjoying public speaking. While arguing speech apprehension from a Christian perception, Schultze (2020) confirmed that fears of speaking are as natural as Adam and Eve hiding in the garden. Fear arouses guilt and shame, as expressed through Adam and Eve's hiding for fear of God's wrath upon ignoring his commands. However, if only they could overcome such fears and speak out about their ill deeds, then attain forgiveness that would relieve their shame and guilt. Speech apprehension remains part of the human condition because it exposes the speaker to the spectator's judgments. Fear affects self-esteem as the speaker keeps being disturbed by the audience's perception of them. The speaker feels guilt and shame upon thinking about what will happen if the target audiences think of such a speaker as a non-performer. Such feelings alleviate the fear of failure making the speaker think of sourcing alternatives like quitting public speaking to secure their dignity and maintain their self-esteem. However, the need to admit that one has fears is the key to fighting the powers of such fears. As a servant speaker aimed at serving others, accepting stage flights can help a speaker to understand who to talk to first as a way of practicing the speech in a friendly environment before proceeding to external audiences. Which of the listed ways of defying panic might work the best for you and why Defying panic comes with the ability to beat all odds and stand out as a perfect speaker regardless of the challenges. Panic is a scary feeling that leads the speaker to confusion, frustration and distractions limiting effectiveness in speech delivery. The key to understanding how best to overcome such panic is the need to be aware or prepared for significant panic triggers during speech delivery, like distractions by the audience, spotting an unexpected audience and experiencing technical during the presentation. However, though there are many ways of defying panic to enhance speech presentation, planning response to triggers and preparing well for speech might work best for me in response to panic. Planning response triggers comes with an understanding that there might be panic triggers during speech presentation and being ready to respond to them positively. I am not a professional speaker but given a chance to speak in public; I believe I might feel uncomfortable spotting some of my friends if were not part of the target audience. I also know that I might fear standing in new audiences for the first time. However, with such insight, I might prepare in advance by giving a speech on different people close to me and asking my friends to pop in during my presentation to gauge my readiness to deal with such triggers. Interestingly, regardless of my ability to respond to triggers, without proper preparation for...