Hello Folks,
It’s easiest to say “No” to that question because to my knowledge, nobody wants to think of themselves as having fear of anything. However, according to Lisa Jimenez, M. Ed. this week’s featured speaker for the free “Ask Mister Self Help” tele-seminar series, everyone has fear. That’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned because that way I know I’m not the only one or in a subset of people who do. Over the years I’ve done a better job of controlling my fear by working on myself through self improvement.
One example of this happened to me late last week as I attended my first Toastmasters meeting after having heard many self help experts recommend doing so because of the skills you acquire and the people with whom you surround yourself with. That is, like minded people who are looking to better themselves and aspire to live an extraordinary life with purpose and passion. Self help experts will tell you that the person you will become is a factor of the books you read, audios you listen to, and the people you associate with, so Toastmasters is a good place to go for the right kind of association.
At the Toastmasters meeting as a guest, I requested to be able to speak. They were delighted and allowed me speak. I gave a description of who I am, what I am looking to accomplish and why I was there. It went great and I had a lot of confidence as I delivered my 6 minute speech. I did feel a slight level of fear as I waited for my turn to speak, but it was fairly minimal, or in other words, not too uncomfortable.
I’ve heard a lot about fear over my years working within self improvement and here are three things in dealing with fear (Lisa is going to give a bunch more information as it relates to fear):
1) Feel the fear and do it anyway (book title by Susan Jeffers)
2) Create massive action and the death of fear is certain
3) Fear is an absence of confidence and confidence comes from knowledge
I had a great time doing the speech and what I found out is that I felt good about having done it because I’m growing and getting better. My goal is to speak before large and small audiences on the topic of self improvement to help empower them to move on with their lives and to live up to their potential. Toastmasters will help me achieve that goal. As one of the members said escorting me to the meeting, you aren’t born with speaking skills, they are learned. And I’m in the right environment to do just that.
Have a great week,
Kevin
