Write A Speech - And Experience No Fear

Ever stopped to wonder why sometimes, even the act of writing a speech, makes you feel nervous?

After all you've probably written thousands of words in your lifetime, and you felt fine most of the time. What is it about a speech?

The main challenge with speech writing is you're the one who'll have to deliver the message. In person. All alone in front of an audience.

Ever heard the saying "Pioneers come home full of arrows." Well, sometimes they shoot messengers too.

Maybe it's safer to stay in the public speaking audience, instead of on the stage.

Of course it's safer. But that's no fun is it?

Whether you realize it consciously or not, you probably imagine your whole identity is at stake. You think who your very value as a person depends on how those people in the audience react to your speech.

Is this true? Of course not, but your mind doesn't let reality get in the way of a good story!

There's only one way around this challenge. It's illustrated beautifully in this story.

A Story

A man had a terrible nightmare. It upset him so much he told a wise man about it. What the wise man told him holds the key to ending your fear of public speaking forever.

He'd dreamed he was in Hell. He knew it was Hell because he was seated at a long banquet table with a lot of other people but no-one could eat.

The table was full of the most delicious food but all the people, including himself, had solid bamboo sleeves on their arms. There was no way they could bend their arms to get the food into their mouths.

There was only torment. Frustration. Starvation.

The Wise Man listened carefully and then told the man he was wrong. It wasn't Hell he'd dreamed about, but Heaven.

The simple answer he explained, was people had to feed each other.

He explained the bamboos sleeves represent the laws. the rules of the game. The way things are.

Try and feed yourself. Misery.

Try and feed others. All you ever want.

When you write a speech it's exactly the same. Try and write a speech to please yourself, and the result will always be misery.

How do you know if you're writing a speech to please yourself? That's easy to answer.

If you feel bad about it. If you're nervous, nauseous or in any way negative then you're worried about how your speech will affect you.

In this case you'll always be afraid of public speaking on some level. The laws are the laws.

Now consider how you'll feel when you stop trying to feed yourself by making yourself look good. When you feed the others at the banquet table, by putting all your attention on writing a speech to help them.

Immediately all resistance to the laws disappears. You're playing the game and suddenly you notice it's actually quite enjoyable.

In time you may even discover what thousands of others have learnt. Public speaking can be one of the most enjoyable experience in life.

All you have to do is try and help your audience.

Can You Help Your Audience?

Look at it this way.

How many people are in your audience? Only one.

Oh sure, next to that one there's another one, and another one ...

The point is they're listening to you one at a time.

Can you help another person by saying something to them? Well, at least you can create a situation wher ethey're more likely to help themselves.

And some people would say that's the whole point of a human life.

What will you say?

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