This is the Ice Breaker Speech of TM Celso A. Costiniano which he delivered early last year.
Overcoming My Fear
Every New Year, I always make it a point to include in my resolution’s list to overcome glossophobia. Glossophobia is commonly known as stage fright or fear of public speaking. This is the fear that I dreaded most. Since my childhood, I faced this fear without resolve and I carried it until these days. The effects of this fear are still vivid in my mind, that every time I remember those embarrassing situations, I cringed just by the thought of them. I was in Grade 3, when I was asked to sing in front of my classmates during our Christmas party. Can I do it? I asked to myself. Yes I can sing. But could I deliver it in front of them? The answer was no. I was singing White Christmas, when I felt my hands and legs shaking, my throat became parched dry and my voice went terribly out of tune. Everybody looked at me, wondering what was going on. But before that could be answered, I was already dashing out straight to our house. It was not a Merry Christmas at all. The fear within me was victorious.
During my elementary graduation, I was tasked to deliver the opening speech. Everything went well during the rehearsals, but during the graduation ceremony, this fear in me was again victorious. It was too much for me to stand on stage in front of those multitudes. I was just about to deliver my speech, when I felt my world wobbling. I started to lose my voice. And before everything got worse, I was again dashing out from the stage to the comfort of our house.
Ironically, during my high school graduation, I have to deliver again that dreaded welcome speech. The same ordeal in my elementary graduation happened again. I ended up in my house while the graduation ceremony was still going on. I promised to myself that I will never be on such an embarrassing situation again – talking in front of an audience. From then on, I avoided attending social gatherings for the fear that I might be asked to speak in front of them. I do not have the courage to do that. I always have ready excuses to them. My dream of becoming an eloquent leader had started to vanish. How can I express myself with the handicap that I have? What kind of future will I have without socializing with other people? Do I have to remain like this forever? These were the questions ringing in my ears that needed answers. I have to do something to fight this fear.
This glossophobia had aroused my interest further. I wanted to know on ways to overcome it. I came to know that this is common to people from all walks of life. So I am not alone, after all. As others would say, some people would prefer to die than speak in front of an audience. However, some people had overcome this fear or at least minimized it. This gave me a sense of hope. If others were able to subdue this fear, then there is no reason that I cannot do it. I promised to myself that I should succeed. Some techniques were suggested to overcome this fear, like relaxing before the speaking engagement, pretending talking to an invisible audience and imagining talking to a naked audience. These suggestions may sound weird to some of us, but still they are worth to be tried on. But the best action that I made was by joining this Toastmasters Club as a long term solution. I joined this club to unmask and deliver myself from this cocoon of fear. As Confucius quoted, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Today, my journey in defeating this fear has just begun. I take this as a challenge and part of this challenge I am sharing it with you my fellow Toastmasters. My success in overcoming this fear is also your success.
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