There's nothing like the thrill of looking over a sea of people, knowing all eyes are on you. Over the years, I have had many opportunities to speak, well, publicly, and I've learned a lot about myself. Let it be known, however, that I will be analyzing myself from an objective point of view and will not be tooting my proverbial horn.
In high school, I was lucky enough to take a communication skills class where all we did was give speeches. Consequently, I gained a lot of experience. One thing I learned from that class was that I was able to engage the class quite well with humor and other hooks. It is apparent to me now that a major strength I had was creativeness. My high school communications class helped to provide a good base of knowledge which I am often thankful for.
Whether in high school or in the present, I realize that my greatest strength in public speaking is confidence. When I go up to give a speech and look out over the dozens of eyes staring at me I don't feel panicked. I am able to stay calm and make myself believe that I am about to give the greatest speech known to man. While my speeches are obviously not the best, I can at least inspire myself with a little bit of confidence. Personally, having strong confidence in myself allows me to stay relaxed and give a better speech.
As good or as bad as I may be, I am still a mere mortal. I have flaws. I feel one of my most prominent is getting a mental block and using verbal fillers. If I start to lose my flow of thoughts I sometimes lose focus and may throw an "um" or a prolonged "uhhhh" in my speech. To remedy this, I am working on staying clam when my flow of thoughts is interrupted. I'm also trying to remedy the "uh" problem by telling myself that silence is always better than an "uh." I think if I can remain calm when I run into a metal roadblock and limit my use of verbal fillers, I will be a better speaker.
Another problem I recently noticed was my monotone voice and lack of voice inflection. Lack of
variation in tone makes a speaker sound disinterested and dull, and that's the last thing I want to be. So, in the wake of my last speech, I have been making a conscious effort to add more tone variation in my every day speaking voice. I've found that adding these variations actually puts me in a better mood. It must be the similar to how the physical act of smiling, even when you're sad, can make you happier. I think if I can fix my lack of tone variation in my voice, my talks would improve greatly.
With a little work and some confidence, I think I can give you guys some good speeches!
