Speaking in Public: Is There Anything You Would Prefer Do Less?

I was having a look at a listing of fears and some shocked me, and there had been one phobia that bowled me over. I sort of couldn’t believe it when I read it. It said that most of us would rather die than talk in public. Folks with fears of public speaking would prefer to die than do it? I do not know about you but that’s just extraordinary to me.

It’s really an oxymoron because if you concentrate on it for an instant, we all literally talk in public all the time. We all talk with small groups of folk we know, like at a family dinner or a cookout. Some more outward than others and some more refined but we will be able to do it. I’m wondering if its all about being judged or if the person had a hideous experience once before. No matter what the reason, it’s amazing that this is similar to the no 1 fear and people would prefer to die.

I do know someone that told to me they had that problem. He is a coach and annually when he had to talk to the youngsters and their mom and dad at a annual banquet, almost everyone he already knew, he said he would just consider it and get frightened. When it might be time to get up to the podium he would sweat and feel weak. And even though he thought that it was alright to do something within him held him back.

I can’t conceive of this and perhaps that is why it is so weird to me. I’ve always needed to answer a question in class, be in the school play, and even in the first grade and had no problem playing piano in front of folk. I actually like it and almost never feel scared. I dont comprehend why, just like folk who can’t do it do not know why, I can and have no idea why.

Not long ago when my baseball coach friend shared this with me I asked, did you ever handle it? He revealed he went to conferences to be able to talk in public but he said that was like not knowing the right way to swim and being tossed in the lake off the back of the ship. They told you get up in front of folks and talk, which was the problem in the first place. It didn’t work for him.

He also said he thought back as much as he was able to school, you know…being younger, every part of his past he could recall and he doesn’t recall any experience when it might have begun. He was not the most social person at college, so he says, but he wasn’t shy and in the corner either. Just normal as he calls it. Seems strange to me but on the other hand tons of things appear strange to me.

Now that I know folk rather die than talk in public, well not all people, but those with this fear, I wonder really why that is. Heck, we all talk to each other and wit’s not like we are alone when we do. So what’s the deal once we talk to people and share what we are thinking? Now I’m curious to grasp.

Crizza Reyes
Author & Speaker on Woman’s Forums
Read more about how Crizza beat the fears of public speaking at our web site.