Happy International Women’s Day for yesterday! I had an amazing day celebrating with so many wonderful women. I was blessed with the opportunity to emcee a Women of Influence event, hosted by my local Chamber of Commerce (Greater Parkland Regional Chamber), and I am still on a high from it.
Public speaking is not something that comes easy to me…at all! If you read my Pink Shirt Day blog, you will know that I was once a shy kid and would have run for the hills had anyone even hinted at me speaking in front of an audience. One of business buddies, came up to me after, congratulated me on a job well and asked, “Do you remember when you used to be shy?” I sure do…and it wasn’t really that long ago either.
We are not born with confidence, but we can learn it. With courage, we can put ourselves in situations that, when done repeatedly, will bring on confidence…like public speaking. I am living proof of that. Apparently, there’s a stat out there that suggests that most people would rather die than step in front of crowd to talk! How crazy is that?! It’s just a skill to learn like anything else.
I’m reading The Chimp Paradox right now (almost finished) and the chapter that I happened to read yesterday morning before heading out to the event, was about confidence. Most of us are taught that self-confidence is about believing in our own abilities. By looking at it this way, we are basically saying that if we don’t do something to the best of our abilities…we are failing! Whereas, if we base confidence on doing our best…we can always achieve that. If I make a mistake, it’s ok, because I still did my best. I like this approach much better.
I applied this way of thinking to my own circumstances, yesterday, and it worked wonders. I feel like that was honestly the most confident I have ever been when speaking to an audience, and that confidence carried me through the rest of my day and into my piano playing. I was feeling stuck with my practice and didn’t feel like I was progressing, and then yesterday happened and I moved on.
If you read through this thinking that there is no way that you could ever be more confident…think again. If you want it enough, you will do it! I never expected this of myself either. I had always hoped and worked towards it…but never actually imaged I would get there. But I did…and you can to. It’s not easy, but it is absolutely worth it!
How do you feel about public speaking?
Does it come easy to you? Do you push through it despite your fears? Or do you freeze and refuse to even try?
I would love to hear your story!
