Did you know that babies (us) are born with only two fears? Loud noises and falls. Beyond those two fears, your subconscious was a blank slate. You learned all your other fears of someone else.
From birth to seven years we have little reasoning ability. We are like little tape recorders. Everything we were told was downloaded into our subconscious mind as fact.
This downloaded information was put there by people who loved you, like your parents and family members who wanted to protect you. You were bombarded with phrases like: “Do not go near that water, you could drown!” “Stay away from that dog, it will bite you!” “Don’t get on there, you’ll fall and hurt yourself!” No wonder so many of us fear water, dogs, and heights!
It would be wonderful if our formative years were filled with positive and reinforcing comments like, “You’re so smart,” “You can do anything,” or “You’re so good at it.” Unfortunately, I know few if any people who heard more positive than negative during their formative years.
And so it is with public speaking. I highly doubt you’ve ever heard an adult loved one say, “I can’t wait to give that speech” or “I love standing in front of an audience.” You’ve more likely heard things like, “Not me. I’m not going to speak at Grandma’s funeral,” or “Let someone else toast the wedding,” or “There’s no way I’m saying anything at the wedding party.” Bob’s retirement. You learned to associate public speaking with pain, something to be avoided at all costs. After all, if the people who loved you hated it, you wanted nothing to do with it either!
The real problem here is that our conscious mind (thinking, reasoning, decision making) controls only about five percent of our daily life. Our subconscious mind, which is automatic, operates our behaviors the other ninety-five percent of the time, which means that ninety-five percent of the time you are living someone else’s life.
Isn’t it time you got rid of the irrational fear of public speaking that your father, a family friend, or Uncle Joe put into your head 40 years ago?
Just as your fears have settled into your subconscious, you can uninstall them with a variety of techniques. A good place to start is with repetition. “I’m a confident speaker”, “No one knows the material better than me”, “I have great information to offer my co-workers”, “People respect my experience and want to learn from it”.
We live in a world driven by beliefs. You are what you think you are. Your beliefs control your life.
A great place to start to change your subconscious and your beliefs is Claude M. Bristol’s book, The Magic of Believing.
There is nothing wrong with you. believe it.
