Beat the Burglar

Don’t invite crime -- take basic, sensible precautions (预防). Your house and possession are valuable and must be properly protected. When you buy a lock, you buy time. The best prevention is delay and noise which could mean discovery.

You are standing in a hall packed with friends, family, colleagues and peers. You are about to walk onto the stage and address theme. You’re expected to say something meaningful and profound and everyone is hanging on your every word. You need to be clearly spoken, confident and calm, maybe even funny. How do you feel?

If you’re shaking, sweating and looking for the exit, you’re normal. Most of us are scared of public speaking and yet, as a society, we’re becoming more obsessed with hearing what people have to say: we watch endless TED talks, download podcasts and screen hours of YouTube clips. Being able to address a crowd is no longer the domain of the brave—if you want to get ahead in your career, you need to master it. I’ve done enough public speaking to have picked up some tips and tricks, and these are the ones I rely on most.

The most important thing is to prepare. You don’t have to write out your speech word by word but get the headline, three key points and the concluding sentence on paper and put bullet points under each. Then run through it and note which of your bullet points made it in and what you added. Adapt your notes and try again. Keep going until you have a structure.

Now it’s time to watch yourself—yes, get out your camera and film yourself. This is how you will see the points that need work and where you can polish it up.

Most of the information the audience will take away will be from your energy and your tone, a little from your words. Once you have sorted out the words, focus on how to exude(散发) the right energy—do you need confidence or humor? I go for confidence so, five minutes before a talk, I try to recall a success I’ve had. I focus on the details and aim to bring that feelings of competence to life.

Finally, breathe. We cannot speak without breath, yet it is the first thing we let go of when we are nervous. Settle your breathing before you start. If you lose control of your breath in the middle, say “Let’s take a moment to think about that last point.” That gives you a pause to collect your breath. The only way to get over a fear of public speaking is to do it, again and again. You will have good and bad experiences but, if you do it enough, you’ll realize that, occasionally, it’s fun.

Having self-confidence can be the difference between being successful and being unsuccessful. Self-confidence is one of the best assets(资产) a person can have. If your self-confidence is low, loneliness and depression can set in. To avoid this problem, try some kind of new lifestyle adjustments(调整) to improve your self-confidence.

Take care of your appearance. 【小题1】. Because when you look good, you feel good about yourself. You become more confident when interacting(交往) with others.

【小题2】. Because they may inspire you to be confident, too. Watch how they behave, speak and carry themselves and try to put these actions into your own life.

Praise yourself for your achievements. 【小题3】. Realize that it’s your talents and abilities that helped you reach your goal.

Learn from your mistakes instead of blaming and criticizing yourself for your failures. Always thinking about your failures only develops a lack of self-respect and doesn’t allow you to move forward. 【小题4】.

Step outside your comfort zone(安逸区). 【小题5】. Even if it may be uncomfortable at first, your self-confidence will improve. People that hide in the back and don’t want to get noticed often lack self-respect and self-confidence. By staying in the back, they are not doing anything to improve the situation.