You Are Normal to Fear Communicating In Some Circumstances

• 00:04 If you ever get nervous, if you are fearful of some communication situations,
• 00:09 it just means you're normal.
• 00:11 After all,
• 00:12 the polls do show that people say public speaking is their number one fear.
• 00:16 I don't really believe that.
• 00:17 I think if someone said I'm going to push you out of the airplane, or
• 00:21 give a quick toast to everyone, you would give a little many toasts speech.
• 00:26 But still it is something that creates anxiety in people, it creates fear.
• 00:31 Evolutionary biologist believe that we are programmed this way is
• 00:36 a defense mechanism.
• 00:37 Because thousands of years ago, if you're out in the plains, and
• 00:42 you're completely exposed, lions, tigers, bears,
• 00:46 other creatures can come see you exposed and attack you, and eat you.
• 00:52 Whereas if you're a part of a herd, one of a thousand,
• 00:55 your odds are good of not being eaten.
• 00:58 So when you stand up to speak, give a presentation,
• 01:02 you're feeling this, I'm exposed.
• 01:06 These people could come, grab me, eat me, kill me.
• 01:09 That's why your hands are perspiring.
• 01:12 Your body could be perspiring because your body's trying to protect you.
• 01:17 Adrenaline is pulsating telling you to run get out of here.
• 01:21 Unfortunately, if you're nervous or uncomfortable about sitting down with
• 01:26 your boss to ask for a raise or sitting down with your largest investor to ask for
• 01:31 another $10 million round of investment, sweating and
• 01:35 having the adrenaline to run quickly isn't going to help you at all.
• 01:39 It's actually the opposite.
• 01:42 It's going to make you look bad, and be unproductive.
• 01:46 So we got to figure out a way of dealing with this fear, and getting over it.
• 01:52 But I do want you to realize it's completely normal to have some fear,
• 01:57 some anxiety.
• 01:58 So I mentioned to you in the previous section number one way to get over
• 02:03 it is to practice, tell you what you see.
• 02:07 Now I'm a pretty comfortable speaker.
• 02:08 I enjoy speaking.
• 02:09 I actually seek out every kind of opportunity for giving speeches,
• 02:13 presentations, trainings.
• 02:15 I do more than a hundred trainings a year live in person with people.
• 02:20 So I like to think of myself as a pretty comfortable speaker.
• 02:23 But still I'm human being too.
• 02:26 And with most people, if you take them out of their comfort zone,
• 02:30 they can get uncomfortable.
• 02:33 I remember about a decade ago,
• 02:36 I was a judge on a Reality TV show in Eastern Europe.
• 02:40 I was called out on stage, was asked to announce one of the winners,
• 02:45 our first runner up, but everything was in a foreign language.
• 02:49 And the name was written in a foreign language that I couldn't read.
• 02:53 At that moment, I was nervous.
• 02:56 I was held comfortable.
• 02:59 And it was not my finest performance ever.
• 03:03 But you know what, I got through it.
• 03:05 No one really noticed.
• 03:07 I smiled, I handed it back to the emcee, and he read it out loud.
• 03:13 And no one else really remembered.
• 03:15 So my point is, no one's a superhuman.
• 03:18 I'm not a superhuman.
• 03:19 Everyone is nervous if you take them out of their comfort zone.
• 03:23 The key is figuring out how to make yourself comfortable by doing all
• 03:28 the various steps I've talked about so
• 03:30 far in this course with more steps to continue.
• 03:33 So relax if you feel uncomfortable, nervous or
• 03:37 even fearful of speaking situations.
• 03:40 It just means you're normal.

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