What if I tell you that speaking up is actually way easier than you think…
Speaking to someone you know, someone you don’t know or even to a bunch of people could seem to be a very daunting task for everyone. I mean, admit it, at any point of your life, you definitely experience fear when you are needed to speak to someone about something. I, myself, experience it firsthand when I was in the debates club society. I was like everyone, like you guys reading this post now, feeling helpless, cheeks burning with embarrassment because I did not know what to say at that moment.
However, just recently, during my free time, I was able to allocate some time off to listen to a podcast, discussing about spontaneous speaking and how speaking can be made easier depending on yourselves.
Spontaneous speaking is stressful moment for most of us here, because there is the pressure put on your shoulder to deliver something impressive, something amazing to wow the audience. However, what sets spontaneous speech from speeches in general, is that people do not prepare scripts on what to say. People who are best in speaking spontaneously often radiate the vibes similar to that of a knowledgeable, confident person.
So how exactly should we be doing to be that person who is good at spontaneous speeches? It is pretty simple if you are able to pinpoint your root cause and what is stopping you from speaking up.
Most of the time, people are afraid to speak up, in any context, simply because they are overly aware of the people around them as well as the surroundings they are in. In the podcast, the guest speakers said something that took me back for a while simply because it sounded unconventional from the type of advice I would expect from an expect. He said that sometimes, we should get lost on purpose. You might be asking what has this got to do with being to speak up confidently. So, he further elaborates that, during his way back home, instead of taking the normal route, he would just take a early turn or a late turn into a road that differs from the route he always take. He say that during this process, he was able to explore a side of his town that he has never explored for years of stay in the town. He shared about the different buildings with interesting architecture as well as discovering amazing eateries. Afterwards, he further on talked about getting lost on purpose has really allowed him to broaden his horizon, to discover what is new as compared to the routine habit of taking the same route back home. This goes to show that sometimes, rather than harping on what makes the best speech, how to more confident in public speaking, we should dare to explore uncharted waters, dare to discover what we are missing out.
Let me break it down for you into 2 main parts on why most people are unable to be confident speakers.
The first part would be people always having the inertia when it comes to expressing themselves in front of a bunch of people. I bet most of you would be thinking, that is totally normal, but how do we exactly overcome this inertia? So, you have to explore what exactly is setting the inertia in yourself. For most of us, it would be the fear of not doing things right. At this point, I would like to clarify that by all means, there is no fixed set of answers for a good speech, so there is no “right” and “wrong” speech. The very reason why you are expecting to do things right is because you are not brave enough to take the first step. You are giving yourself an excuse to just chill and not speak up. What a confident speaker would do, or someone who aspires to be one would do, is that they will just take action and speak. Action is very important in anything you do. No action equates to no result. No matter how much you plan and visualise in your head, no action will still give you no result. So, why don’t you just take the first step and try.
The second part would be being overly aware of the audience and our surroundings. Often, we tend to revise and deliberate multiple times on what we should deliver to the audience in order to be portrayed as a confident speaker. In our head, we are always thinking about these few questions, which will probably resonates with some of you. “I might offend someone by saying the wrong facts…”, “I might sound cliche or unoriginal/cheesy/boring…”, “People might be judging me so hard when I say those words…” I was no stranger to these thoughts, these questions. However, think about it, are these questions going to be exactly what you are going to face after the speech? No, a big no. Often, we tend to overthink too much and that is exactly the case where everyone is heading to. Does being fearful of speaking translates to being absolutely bad at speaking? The answer is a straight no. What ultimately matters is whether you take actions. No action equates to no result.
For people who tend to be aware of their surroundings and the people they talk to, they could possibly just be as “obvious” as they can when speaking. The “obvious” in the case means that we can just showcase our genuine personality when speaking to peers and audiences. Be it whether people judge you, or you think that people might not accept you for who you are, just do it. If you never try, you will never realise which areas are your strengths and weaknesses at.
So before you embark on fearful thoughts about speaking, just take a bold step forward and try it out. You will never know what is going to be in store for you if you do not try it out.
Cheers, everyone!
