OK, If your nerves get to you every time you stand up to speak in front of a group of people, I have something to tell you. Stop giving your self a mini heart attack!
Over the past few year as I have been coaching all kinds of professionals and showing them how to move beyond their public speaking anxiety or take their public speaking and presentation skills up a notch. I have been beginning all of my coaching sessions with: MASTERING THE ART OF MAKING MISTAKES.
You see we create so much anxiety within in ourselves when we focus on speaking perfectly and being mistakeless (I know, it’s not a word, but that’s ok, stay with me), that we miss the whole point of why we are speaking. Which is always to share and deliver from your core and simply share what you know in your own unique way.
When we focus on being mistakeless, we then pay very little attention to the most important facets of speaking; interacting with our audience, listening and reacting to our audience, and essentially talking “with” our audience. We lose the conversational aspect that people seek, and sadly we start to talk at our audience.
However here’s my philosophy on mistakes that I encourage you to adopt — IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE, YOU JUST MAKE A MISTAKE — AND THAT IS OK. It really is not that serious, you have made it serious only in your mind. It only means something if you add meaning to it.
If and when you make a mistake, because you will, we all will (and that’s ok), just continue. If you muffle up your words or mis-pronounce something — just continue. If you have a brown out, pause for a moment — just continue. If you say something in correctly, correct it and — just continue. Most of the time your audience doesn’t even realize that you have made mistake, so — just continue.
When you go into a speaking engagement with the mindset of being ok with making a mistake, and knowing what to do when you make a mistake — then you have removed one of the main culprits of “your fear of public speaking, your glossophobia”.
Perfection is being human; perfection is being you with all of your quirks, nuances, strengths and weaknesses.
When you learn to be ok with and master the art of making mistakes, you are then are able to focus on what truly matters when speaking to any audience, and that is connecting with and engaging them. As humans we connect with people who are similar to us, people who mess up every once in a while and are ok with themselves.
From today forward, I want you to start mastering the art of making mistakes: WHEN IT HAPPENS, GET OVER IT AND MOVE ON!
If the time is right and you’re ready to do what it takes to increase your impact and confidence when you present, set up a time for a Complimentary “Increase my Impact When I speak” strategy call with Karen: Book My Time