Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.










Conquering Your Fear of Public Speaking


If you get nervous before an important speech or presentation, you're not alone. Approximately 70% of presenters experience butterflies and pre-speech jitters. Yet for a significant portion of the population, fear of public speaking or communication apprehension (CA) can be a serious problem. It may be a lifelong fear or current apprehension toward a specific situation. Either way, it can severely limit personal and organizational goals including career advancement, company outreach efforts, and visibility for your organization.

AREAS OF FOCUS

• Determining the causes of your speech anxiety
• Controlling physiological, psychological, and emotional responses
• Calming your nerves and gaining confidence as a speaker
• Turning nervousness into exciting and energized presentations
• Exercises for breathing, relaxation, and improved focus
• Learning how to counter the "fight or flight syndrome
• Developing and practicing positive coping statements

• Setting specific and reachable goals
• Learning rational and realistic responses, rather than destructive thinking
• Healthy breathing for speaking and interpersonal situations
• Practicing positive self-talk
• Time management techniques and managing the speaking situation
• "Grounding" yourself to gain strength and authority
• Becoming comfortable and dynamic in your movement and body language
• Staying flexible and able to think on your feet even with challenging audiences

• Learning "mindfulness," or being 100% present in your presentations
• Coming across as a polished presentation professional
• Listening skills for understanding and responding to audiences
• Trusting your instincts and maximizing your natural talents
• Approaching speaking as communication rather than performance
• Using visual aids to take the pressure off AND boost your persuasiveness
• Practice and preparation: From 100% anxiety to zero!
• "Letting go" for maximum influence . . . and enjoyment

• Building in interactions with speech and presentation attendees
• Progressive relaxation (in full view of your audience!)
• How to make—and enjoy—eye contact with your listeners
• Focusing your nervous energy to positive effect
• How to pace your presentations so you're relaxed and comfortable
• Using silence and pauses to look and sound confident
• Establishing a relationship with your audience for likeability and charisma

Quotes Worth Remembering

True humor is fun - it does not put down, kid, or mock. It makes people feel wonderful, not separate, different, and cut off. True humor has beneath it the understanding that we are all in this together.

-Hugh Prather

No one is perfect... that's why pencils have erasers. ~Author Unknown

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault. ~John Henry Newman



Best Book Bets on Public Speaking



I Can See You Naked (Paperback)
by Ron Hoff "You have been asked to make a presentation..." ( more)

Do Not Go Naked Into Your Next Presentation: Nifty Little Nuggets to Quiet the Nerves and Please the Crowd (Paperback)
by Ron Hoff "If you can be first, be first..."

Editorial Reviews

This is Ron Hoff's third book on the trials and tricks of public speaking, and if you've ever faced the prospect of speaking in public with trepidation, this amusing book, filled with anecdotes and pointers, will help you get through it with flying colors! After reading this book and recalling a recent benefit dinner I was obliged to attend, I wished a lot more public speakers had already read it ...

This photo is Lake Louise in Banff Park
in the province of Alberta in Canada.


A Note on Photos

For all who asked about getting photos,
I use free ones from yotophoto, they're
great and then I use

google free pic organizer

PICASA...... you can get that free

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good luck to all dave

Self-Confidence: First Step
To Fearless, Persuasive Speaking


Developing more self-confidence and self-esteem has been a consistent theme of this blog.

There are so many reasons why that is important and why it's the best gift you can give yourself today or any day. Like winning a race or getting an A+ on a final exam, it just makes you feel good and so much better about yourself.

Those good feeling allow you to face the next challenge, problem or opportunity with more strength and self-assurance to insure your next victory. So, today and in the coming days in this blog we'll develop a plan, a paint by the numbers, if you will, to be certain you are becoming more confident and feeling more self-esteem each day. It will be fun and feel almost as good as winning that race.

First, you should learn to be alert to the self-talk that goes on in your head, as it does in everyone's brain. If the conversation is negative, if you see you're putting yourself down or calling yourself negative names, then stop. Stop when you hear that negativism and oppose it with the facts about your own worthy self. You deserve to love yourself first among all people.

Next, promise yourself to silence the inner critic, which perhaps you learned from too severe parenting or wherever. Oppose that negative self-talk by building yourself up as a coach on a sports team would build up his players in the locker room. Root for yourself. Be your own best cheerleader.

More suggestions to come in the next blog, as to how you will learn to admire and appreciate your inner hero and live that for all to see. Why not, it's very attractive.

Your friends may think you got a new hair style or started working out more. You will be more attractive for all to see.

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Good Advice


Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained. --Marie Curie Polish-French chemist

Confidence is a habit that can be developed by acting as if you already had the confidence you desire to have. --Brian Tracy

Your self-confidence is directly connected to how much you feel you are making a difference in your world. --Brian Tracy

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Quotes Worth Considering



Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Please leave a comment if you like,
and we hope you will find the articles
and ads to be of help and will come back often.

You can click on the photo below to see it in larger image.

5 Steps for Building Self-Confidence

by: Arina Nikitina


Self-confidence is an all important trait you need to acquire in today's fast-paced world. For one thing, you must have confidence in yourself first to earn the confidence and respect of others.

The following strategies may be useful to overcome such self-conquering thought habits. Consider these steps as the building blocks for greater confidence in any aspect of your life.

1. Concentrate on your strengths rather than on your weaknesses.

Confidence comes from within. You have to concentrate on the positive things about yourself. Remember the past is over; you can only change the future. Write down ten positive things about yourself.

Concentrate on your potentials. These are the reasons you should love yourself and have high self-confidence in yourself. Give yourself credit for every positive thing you have written about yourself. Remember, you're somebody special.

2. Remind yourself of past successes.

Confidence builds on past success. Because you had success before, you can (and will) have it once more. We strengthen our confidence in any interest when we remind or review ourselves of past successes.

If you are trying to develop confidence in a new aspect, past success can still be useful in strengthening our confidence. For instance, if you had success in doing something new in the past, recall those experiences when trying something else new – even if it is in a completely different part of your life.