P2P

37 I L T A N E T . O R G as "You love the topic and you love sharing information with others. Give it a shot!" What you are doing is creating an anchor thought. An anchor thought is a powerful tool to help prevent your limiting beliefs from growing into worry or anxiety. SITUATIONS There's no doubt that specific situations can trigger our anxiety. While we may be perfectly comfortable in one situation, another may cause an adrenaline surge that can derail us. Lack of experience is one of those situations and a tough one to overcome. If you haven't had a chance to give a lot of presentations, then it's only natural that being asked to give a presentation is going to cause you some anxiety. The only way to overcome this is to just give more presentations. When there is a real or imagined evaluation component to a speech that is going to add to your fears. No one wants to be judged or assessed. The best way to work on this fear is to understand the evaluation and make sure the speech you're giving ties into the evaluation. Often we don't understand the criteria and that leads to lower evaluations. Speaking to a group of your peers is one thing, but speaking to a group that's higher up the food change is much more stressful. Your best bet here is to try and borrow someone else's authority. You can do this by asking your sponsor to introduce and endorse you. You can also call out attendees by name and repeat what you hear them say to lend authority to your presentation. New ideas or unfamiliar topics can increase our anxiety. Research and preparation are critical when you find yourself speaking on a new topic. Also, stop and think: am I the right person to give this presentation. If not, then kindly decline. And finally, new audiences. If you are speaking to a group that is different from who you would typically talk to, that can shake your confidence. One way to rebuild your confidence is to learn as much about the group and their expectations as you can and tailor the presentation for them? Are they an informal group? Are they expecting a lot of visuals? The more you know about the audience the more comfortable you will feel when it comes time to give the presentation. SKILLS Skills is all about identifying and sharpening the actual presentation skills in your toolkit. Toastmasters International breaks these into the following categories: Words, Vocal Variety, Gestures, Research, and Visual Aids. Words — Do any of these phrases sound familiar? "Bond, James Bond." "A time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap; a time to kill, a time to heal; a time to laugh, a time to weep." Or, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Most of you may likely recognize two if not all three of these phrases. While each uses some type of rhetorical device, what is important is that the phrase is memorable. The effective use of words is even more important in our current environment where visual queues are more limited. On the use of words, a few tips. One, write with the ear in mind. Two, use short words, short sentences, and specificity. Three, avoid superfluous or filler phrases like "as you know" or "needless to say." Four, replace industry specific jargon with common equivalents (e.g., use "talk" rather than "interface"; "imagine" rather than "conceptualize"). Five, replace common cliches like "tried and true" with more descriptive words. If you want to up your game, consider the use of rhetorical devices. Examples of these devices include alliterations ("protect and preserve peace") or triads ("we

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