Building Confidence

One of the topics that the book discussed is helping build your confidence. The two points that I consider the most important from that section would be planning and preparing the speech early, and practice your speech. Since I am not the best writer, I need a lot of time to think about what I am going to write out for my introduction, conclusion, and main points. And of course, starting out on my speech early gives me a lot more time to practice! Practice is extremely important for me since I am pretty nervous giving speeches. Practicing allows me to memorize my speech a little bit so I do not have to focus as much on what I want to say, and instead give more of my energy towards making eye contact with the audience and staying relaxed. I also will not have to worry as much about stuttering and blanking out with my speech, which is something I tend to struggle with a little bit. I have definitely learned a lot in this chapter about helping with my anxiety, and I will for sure be trying to use what I learned in my speech tomorrow.