Fear of Public Speaking

I've heard it said more than a few times that Americans fear public speaking more than death. Given a choice between offering a speech at the luncheon or having a root canal, most folks will opt for the dentist ...

Not me. I got over that in college at Free Speech Alley. Not to say I don't get butterflies before a big speech, I do, but that edge of fear adds to the experience, kind of like riding the Matterhorn Ride in Disneyland. Not much real danger, but it trips the circuits ...

There are all kinds of ways to deal with this fear, but I came up with a new one after reading a piece in Quiet, a book about introverts in our society. Which, largely, I am, even though I can put on the lampshade and entertain, that's not where I gather my power.

Introverts like to be alone, and I'm a writer, go figure. 

In the piece, the writer mentions that this fear is possibly hardwired back to the veldt. 

When you were out foraging and you noticed something watching you, it was, likely as not, considering eating you. Whereby, when you noticed, your survival mechanism told you to haul ass and up the nearest tree, monkey-boy, hubba-hubba! 

Them's that were slow maybe didn't get to pass on any more genes, having become the saber-tooth's lunch.

Fight-or-flight, and standing at the rostrum, she says, might trigger it.

So it occurred to me to turn that situation around: Consider yourself the top predator in the room, and when you look at the crowd, think about which of these tasty critters you'd snack upon first ...

I'm gonna use that next time I get up in front of an audience and see whether or not they laugh when I offer it. And how nervously they laugh, if they do ...