Can Public Speaking Ever Be Enjoyable?

One of my hobbies is storytelling. It gives me great pleasure to take a myth or fable or short story and present it in my own way. It’s a meshing of creativity and public performance, of crafting and drawing in an audience.

I have always been drawn to public performance whilst also not always feeling as comfortable with it as I do now. This has led me through reading on stage as a young school child, performing in amateur dramatic productions, membership of Toastmasters, the international public speaking organisation, and participating in its contests.

The truth is that many of us have varying degrees of nervousness that may extend to overwhelming anxiety about performing in front of others, whether that is introducing yourself in a meeting, giving a work presentation or as part of your profession as a musician or actor. Let us not forget either that giving presentations is a requirement of many further and higher education studies.

I have had clients come to me for fear of public speaking who have developed elaborate ways of evading meetings at work, turned down jobs, not applied for jobs and left university studies because at some point they will be required to speak in front of others. Many will start to feel anxious as soon as they know they must give a presentation, an anxiety that ramps up over the days before the event, often including sleeplessness the night before. One person I worked with had to have an alcoholic drink before he was able to deliver his speeches.

Often, these responses have their roots in childhood events; being laughed at in class, being criticised by a teacher, parent or friend, or some other similar event. Sometimes, it is part of a generalised anxiety the person experiences on a day to day basis.

Like most fears, the fear of public speaking can be overcome and very quickly and easily. Not long ago I worked with a client and after two sessions she said she no longer needed to continue as she was feeling perfectly comfortable about her upcoming viva. Incidentally, this particular client was also concerned about her fear of speaking in front of others because she wanted to pursue a career as a university lecturer. I recently worked with another young woman whose new job required her to present to clients as well as colleagues. After a couple of sessions, she wrote to me that she had been abroad and had given a presentation to 50 people and it had gone very well. This was someone who at the time of coming to see me was also anxious about expressing herself in the office for fear of how she would be viewed.

It is good to have a small amount of nerves about giving a presentation or performance of some sort, a short burst of adrenalin. This gives us the motivation to do the best we can. What I want to draw your attention to though is the exhilaration that can occur when you have expressed your thoughts, ideas and creativity to others, an exhilaration that can occur because you had minimum anxiety and were more focused on what you had to say. Of course, the less fear we have about anything, the more pleasure we can get and the more we can develop both personally and professionally.