If I asked you, how did you meet your spouse or your significant other? Do you think you could be nervous? If I asked you, what's your favorite TV show your favorite food? Or what's your parents do? Do you even think you could be nervous? Chances are no, because you've answered all those questions many, many times.

You know what the answer is, you know what to say you know how to say it. You're so familiar with it. It'd be really hard to be nervous. If you're just talking one on one to someone. Well, speaking is like anything else. The more you do it, the more familiar it becomes, the harder it is to be nervous.

You can be nervous, as we older folks who are married can relate to this. You can be nervous on a first date. But if you're sitting home alone on a Saturday night with someone you've been married to for 30 years, you're probably not going to be nervous. You might be feeling other things. You may be blissfully happy, but you're probably not going to be feeling With nervousness about the idea of being alone with this person, because you're familiar with it, it's something you're used to now, if you only speak once every five years, you're gonna be nervous. But here's the thing about speaking, every single day, you're surrounded by opportunities to speak.

Now, don't get caught up in this distinction between a formal speech, a PowerPoint speech in front of 10,000 people versus a talk or anything else. I really mean, just, anytime you're talking in front of more than one person, let's call that public speaking. Because it's not just an intimate friendly conversation with one person. All of us have opportunities all the time to speak. If you are at a meeting, it could be a Monday morning staff meeting with 30 people present and you normally never see anything. simply asking a question is a type of public speaking and for most people, if you're nervous just raising your hand at a meeting creates some anxiety what I'm suggesting, force yourself to do it.

Make one comment one question anytime you're in a meeting, and it'll be easier the next time if you're at a conference and you see a keynote speaker, famous speaker perhaps. And there's 500 people in the room they may allow for questions will typically only seven people get up. be one of those seven people. If you have a question for your boss, and there's a stabbing don't wait till the end and ask privately, ask in front of everyone. Maybe you wanted to be in a leadership position for your child's scouting troop or some other civic activity but you're afraid of the speaking aspect. force yourself to do that.

The more you speak, the better you may have an opportunity with your business or a civic group to create a YouTube video. That's the perfect time to Practice because you have complete control. You can speak on that video look at if you don't like it, hit delete, just don't upload it. But if for example, you have a passion for raising money for the Cancer Society or the ALS Foundation, then speak out. It could be just an a video that you put on your own website, your own blog, your own Facebook page, but it's more speaking, the more you speak, the better you get. Number one, number two, harder is to be nervous.

It's very difficult to be nervous about something you do on a regular basis. So practice doesn't necessarily make perfect but practice does dramatically reduce anxiety.