Here’s How to Overcome the Fear of Speaking

How to overcome the fear of public speaking and offer your message as a gift to your audience (helpful resources for crafting effective speeches)

How do you overcome the fear of speaking?

If you are doing the will of God you will need to speak. Think of these biblical examples.

• Moses spoke to Pharaoh to let people go

• Noah spoke to warn people of the flood and to build the ark.

• Esther spoke to save the Jewish people from extermination by King Xerxes.

• Joshua spoke to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land.

That’s going to be you one day!

I believe that if you intend to do great things for God in your life, it will inevitably require you to speak to people. Yet how do you overcome that fear?

You can feel nervous being in front of public. Some questions come into your mind:

• What if I forget what I'm going to say?

• What if people don't like what I have to say?

• What if I stumble over my words or make a mistake?

I used to be afraid of public speaking. But then I learned something that made speaking so incredibly easy and fun.

Let me tell you the one tip that has served me in all my speaking endeavors:

You have to believe that what you say is a GIFT.

When you are giving a gift e.g. Christmas, or birthday, you are not thinking about yourself. You are thinking about the other person. In fact, you’re not nervous - you’re EXCITED.

You’re excited because you can’t WAIT to offer it to them. You genuinely believe that what you are offering will benefit and improve their life

Likewise, when you are speaking, you are not just thinking about yourself, but also about your audience. You are offering a gift of knowledge, inspiration, or encouragement that can benefit and improve their lives.

When you are convinced that what you are saying is a valuable gift to your audience, you will be less focused on your own fears and more focused on giving that gift. So offer that gift with confidence and trust that it will be well-received.

If you keep that mentality, then every time you speak think to yourself:

What I say is a gift.

If you think that, it will also change the content of what you’re going to say. You’ll actually be thinking a out “what can I say to be a blessing to this person?”

So- do you think of what you’re going to say as a gift?

Resources to Help Learn How to Speak

Okay, now that you know what you have to say is a gift, WHAT do you actually say?

The second and most crucial part of feeling confident in speaking is learning how to craft what you say. Something I spent time doing as a younger leader was investing energy into learning how to speak.

Imagine - if you could boil down a template of what to say every time you say so that you feel confident.

Here is my list of resources that I have personally used that have really helped me.

Here are some public speaking resources that may help: