Public speaking confidence tips: Many of you have asked, “Now that I have a speech, how do I prepare? How do I memorize it? What does it take to be a confident speaker?”
Well, the first part of the course is going to answer that.
It’s about your mindset.
Without going into too many details (those are in the course!), research shows that a person either has a fixed mindset or a growth mindset when it comes to self-improvement (Carol Dweck is the one who wrote the book, “Mindset” find it on amazon for a fantastic read).
Much of her work focuses on students and how they view their intelligence–do they tell themselves, “I’m smart” or “If I work hard, I can become smarter?” There’s a subtle difference between those two statements. One assumes that intelligence is some sort of fixed aspect of our brains–we are either smart or dumb. The other assumes that we can become smarter through working harder.
So what does the research say? Does it really matter how we view our own intelligence?
YES, MOST DEFINITELY.
Those with a growth mindset, researchers found out, tend to work harder and stay with tougher problems for longer periods of time. Those that think their intelligence is hard-wired and won’t change tend to give up easily when confronted with challenging problems. That’s the really short version of the research.
But what does this have to do with public speaking?
Well, your confidence as a speaker comes down to how you view yourself as a speaker. Who is going to work harder at practicing their speech, someone who thinks, “I can get better at this every time I practice” or “I’m a terrible speaker?” My money is on the first.
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
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