Do you have a public speaking fear? Do you get anxious, nervous, on edge or even come out in a cold sweat at the mere though of presenting in public? The real problem with emotional issues is that you cannot deal with them on a logical level. Let me show you.

The thing about fear is that you could live to one hundred years of age and ninety nine percent of all your fears would turn out to be nothing more than illusions that you bought into at an emotional level. I call fear a Falsely Exaggerated Anxiety Reaction because that's precisely what nearly all fears are.

Here is some more logic for you. It may sound cliché or even a ridiculous thing to say but whether you are speaking to one person or one hundred people, the principles really are the same. Does that help? Of course it doesn't.

Let's try something else. If you can communicate effectively to one person then you can do so to one thousand people.

So, now what you know all that totally common sense logic has it stopped your public speaking fear and anxiety? Of course it hasn't.

But why hasn't it? The answer lies in how your brain is wired and how you have unconsciously created mental associations around public speaking that all relate to fear or anxiety of some kind. You have literally programmed your own brain to generate fear when you think that you are going to have to speak in public.

Your problem is not your ability to present anything, it really isn't. Your challenge is your perception of public speaking and your perception of yourself in relation to public speaking.

The mind goes in the direction of its most dominant thought, or as James Coburn once said, "we are where our attention lies." I could ask you to present a five-minute lecture on quantum physics to 100 people in five days time and the probability is that you would turn me down flat. If I presented you with the same opportunity but this time offered to pay you one million dollars when you did it I'll bet that at the very least you would now consider it seriously before making your decision. Why is this? Because the second time around you had serious motivation. What you need to appreciate here is that your ability never changed! It was your motivation that changed and there is nothing like motivation to overcome anxiety.

So here's the single and most important key to becoming a great public speaker:

The more you want to do it, the more likely you are to become good at it and the less stressed you will probably be about doing it. The reason for this is simple. You will have less aversion to doing it, which means that you will get more practice, which means more feedback and (assuming you take it onboard) greater improvement.

It's just like riding a bike only easier believe it or not. Think about what it took for you to learn to ride a bike and compare that to public speaking. There is no comparison in terms of the amount of learning required but there is in terms of perception, perceived benefits and outcome and your level of desire.

So the first lesson to presenting, and in fact anything that you will ever do in your entire life is this:

"Never doubt your ability and always question your desire, because whenever you mind goes in the direction of I can't, you won't."

David Green -

But what about the times when you are not going to be offered a million dollars? How can you get yourself motivated and full of desire? How can you face the fear and do it anyway, and how can you succeed in giving a great presentation - even if it is you first time?

So, you're nervous, or even fearful of public speaking. Guess what? You are not alone. Over 99% of the entire population of the world actually fear being burned or buried alive less than they fear public speaking. It's true, according to one poll.

The crazy thing about public speaking is that you do it every day anyway, just to less people. Everyone is a natural public speaker but not necessarily a natural attention seeker. And so, when the perception changes so does the desire and the enjoyment.

I realized that over thirty years ago because as a young teacher I never suffered from any nerves. Why would I? Not only was I teaching in my own environment I was teaching people many years younger and less knowledgeable than me and I was teaching out of choice. I also had a dominant thought that revolved entirely around being a teacher. There was no 'me' in the equation. My dominant thinking was about imparting information to other people in a way that they would understand, enjoy and hopefully remember.

In my late twenties I was asked to present a section of a pre-prepared presentation for a company in England and to my surprise I found myself becoming nervous beforehand. My nerves were not actually about presenting though they were about wanting to do my best for the client. My anxiety was about me personally and the stress that I placed upon myself in my desire to do a great job and not let my client down.

Of course, I dealt with it and moved on, and on the thousands of subsequent occasions I have presented for clients over the years I have done so without the slightest nervousness. It was through those experiences that I realized two very important about the psychology of presenting.

When you make it about you then you open the door to ego, which asks, what if. You know the kind

of thing; what if I become tongue-tied? What if I make mistakes? What if I forget or say the wrong

thing? What if they don't like me?

When you make it about other people you depersonalize everything and make it about them, the

substance of what you present, the quality of your material, the venue and ensuring that your

audience has a positive experience. In turn that focuses your attention on the planning,

the preparation, content, structure and overall delivery of your presentation. In addition, the nerves will diminish and you will feel less anxious.

In directing your dominant thinking towards your audience you become a teacher and you begin to value your efforts more because you are informing, educating and helping other people. After all, what is a presentation if it is not the delivery of information in a way that inspires, motivates, informs, educates and enlightens? That is precisely why people attend them - to discover something new, find answers, and glean information; to be informed.

The only real difference between presenters is the quality of the information that they impart and the style of their delivery, unless they are a well know name and then both factors become less important - a fortunate advantage for a lot of so called celebrity presenters in my experience.

And that brings me on to one very important point that you may like to consider. Because most people fear public speaking like they fear a plague they are usually quite generous and more easily forgiving of even the worst speaker. I believe that at some deeper level there is a part of them that illogically assumes that because they fear public speaking anyone who has the courage to do it must be good or at least deserves their respect.

So, if you want to overcome public speaking fears, become a teacher in you mind and not a presenter or speech giver!

If you want to learn more about presenting or any one of the sixteen aspects of presenting and giving great speeches visit my website