The thought of standing in front of the audience to speak fills my whole body with fear. My first speech was for my high school senior presentation. I wanted to present first in order to get it over with. But I ended up presenting last because I was so nervous. When I went up front to present, i remember telling myself that it'll be over soon. I went up front and I started shivering and sweating to a point that I had to ask to be excused for a minute before my presentation.
My weakness in speeches is eye contact. I cannot look at my audience and talk at the same time because it makes me so nervous because, at that point, I am thinking, what is he/she thinking about my speech? Does he/she think I am a bad speaker? Does he/she like my topic?
You tend to think of all those questions when you make eye contact with your audience. You wonder whether the audience is thinking positive or negative things about you. I try to work on making eye contact my inviting all my friends and family members together to practice my speeches to them. I also try to practice to people I don't really know in order to get a different feedback. Because families and friends tend to always give you positive feedbacks. They won't always tell you the negative feedbacks. So I practice to people I don't always communicate with, such as a friend of a friend or classmates I'm not really friends with.
My other weakness during my speeches is that I stutter a lot when I am nervous before my speech. I am currently working on that for my TED Talk. I am working on it by trying to figure out what I need to do to reduce my anxiety be I make my speeches. I noticed that I just need to believe in myself, relax and not worry too much about what my audience will think of my speech.
I might have weaknesses but I also have strengths as well. My strength is developing confidence during my speech. I am always nervous before making my speech and in the beginning of my speech, but I do build up confidence as I continue speaking. There is just one more thing I need to work on, which is being confident from the beginning of my speech to the end.
Although making speeches to a crowd isn't something I enjoy doing, I am willing to enjoy it and be better at it for future purposes.
I like how personal your introduction was and I like how you know the specifics of what exactly you need to work on. Practicing in front of strangers really does help as well as taking deep breaths. Don't worry you got this!
ReplyDeleteI agree that giving speeches can be very nervewracking! The more experience you have public speaking, the less nervous you will become for each one. You can do it!
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