Importance Of Speaking With Confidence
Why do we need to learn Speaking with Confidence?
1. The most important aspect of Speaking with Confidence is to understand that words and language are just means to get our thoughts across. Once we know what we want to say in an orderly manner, it helps build the confidence in us to deliver the speech or presentation.
2. The development of Speaking with Confidence is so important for children as Communication is the core tool in society and civilisation. It’s importance is usually overlooked as it is an intangible skill that many struggle with silently, particularly from a young age where the requirement and expectation is at a minimum level.
3. Speaking with Confidence has great personal and professional benefits, such as building self-esteem, building trust and relationships with themselves and the people around them, open discussions and critical thinking skills to name a few.
4. Public Speaking Skills allow you to overcome your fears, boost your confidence so you can speak with confidence, open yourself to learn and unlearn, allow yourself to adapt to new and improved ways of life, attract opportunities, influence and be influenced by others, increase your life value, increase your empathy for people.
A Good Speaker Must Haves
1. Confidence
2. Good self-esteem
3. Charisma
4. Clear Voice
What is Confidence?
Confidence is the degree of which you are sure of yourself - your abilities, capabilities and being. If you are a confident person, it means you are stead-fest in your thoughts, actions and decisions.
If you have confidence in something, it means you have studied and know alot about the subject. If you have confidence in other people, organisation, management, facility or so on, you have trust and experience with them.
Walk into a room full of strangers and see if you can immediately start a conversation and start speaking with confidence. Doing that is a sign of confidence. If you can deliver a presentation and answer the questions or divert the questions without stuttering or be doubtful, it is also a sign of confidence and it shows that you are good at speaking with confidence.
Tips For Speaking With Confidence.
1. Make eye contact
2. Using face muscles to express and emphasise points
3. Have a straight posture, shoulders back
4. Use a louder and deeper voice
5. Use hand gestures
6. Control your breathing steadily and it will control the calmness of your body
7. Utilise the stage space
Self esteem vs Self Confidence
Many confuse these two terms as the same and it is NOT. Self-esteem is the appreciate and value you have on yourself. It is the result of your life experiences and interactions with people. Self-confidence is the value and level of the trust and belief that you have in yourself and your abilities.
Tips to gain your self-esteem
Many parents come to us telling us how timid and shy their children are. Although at times we find it quite endearing, it is also something that is natural and very possible to improve.
SUKA Studio believes in empowering and giving children the ability of having a voice in their everyday life. The ability and courage to question, to stand up for themselves and say when they agree or likewise appreciate things.
You can either have low, average or high self-esteem. Having low self-esteem especially from a very young age can worsen with age because it builds up insecurities and feelings of self motivation drowns which can lead to depression. To return from the pitfalls of this, it is alot more work so lets start them on the right footing for life. SUKA studio is specialized and provide “Speaking With Confidence Training”.
Main causes of Low self-esteem:
1. Poor social surroundings such as emotional and mental abuse including being bullied in school or at home. Parents, please be aware of how you speak with your kids, the words used and tone. Also, please see the red flags of your child being a victim of bully and vice versa if they are the bully.
In most cases, children bully because of the troubles they face at home wether it is troubles in the marriage of the parents or a family member being abusive in the household. Remember, abuse can be emotional, mental and physical.
2. Feelings of loneliness and unworthiness of peoples company. Parents, please spend some quality time with your children everyday. It could be 30 minutes during dinner time, you can ask them how their day went and offer how you can help. Be focused and present.
Tips on How to Improve Your Self-esteem
1. Be nice to yourself
Be aware of how you speak to yourself. Be forgiving with yourself when you make mistakes to yourself and even to others. Remember you don’t need people’s approval. You set your own standards and value in yourself.
You can start by having a journal and writing:
1. 5 simple things you have done right that day. Such as smile to a friend, choosing to go to school or helping mom in the kitchen etc.
2. 5 things you like about yourself such as your face features, your handwriting etc.
3. 2 things you know you will do better tomorrow such as not getting too angry or not overeating.
4. 5 good things you can easily do tomorrow such as taking out the garbage, kissing mom and dad before going to school etc.
2. Don’t compare with others
Comparing yourself to other people can drive anyone down the hill. Your only competition is yourself. Make your own personal goals in life based on your own dreams and desires. Every single person on earth is talented and beautiful in their own way.
3. Take care of yourBody & Mind
Daily cardio including a 30 minutes walk everyday goes a long way. It is a way to manage the hormones in our body telling our brain to feel happy.
4. Be realistic
Always strive to be the best version of yourself, but also keep in mind perfection is an unrealistic goal to have and improvement is a lifetime goal.
5. Be open to errors
In everyday life even during casual conversation, we make mistakes. After all, we are human. Mistakes can be apologised for and can always be rectified. Just make sure you learn form it and try your best to not repeat.
A good and common mistake is the misuse of words or vocabulary. This can cause a miscommunication. Or, if you forgot to mention a point, next time use a pointer sheet. A pointer sheet is a small piece of paper you can refer to during your speech which highlighted points for you to mention.
Learn to forgive yourself and not be too hard on yourself.
6. Don’t try to be god
We can only take action on things we can change. Try to accept what is and try to figure out what can be better. Again, keeping a journal you can write in on a daily basis helps. E.g. Today I fell down infront of my class and emberassed myself. I get up and brush myself off and marched on.
7. Don’t let yourself be forced , instead be encouraged and motivated
Not everyone has the luxury of doing what they love for a living. Not everyone loves going to school or going to the 9-5 job. We can manage our happiness and satisfaction by allocating an hour or so a day doing what we love.
Watch a good movie, doing your make-up to feel good or even meeting a friend for a play-date or coffee. Remember, everything and anything bad does not last forever. Try to live in the present and enjoy life. Live while you are still alive.
8. Give yourself a pat on your back
Learn to acknowledge self accomplishment. You would know what you don’t enjoy doing or was hard for you to do but you did it anyone because it was the responsible think to day.
You studied and passed! Pat on the back.
You cooked eggs without the yolk breaking! Pat on the back.
You apologised for a mistake! Pat on the back.
Appreciating and rewarding yourself everyday, from the time you get out of bed to the time you are being productive and doing something, play a huge role in self esteem.
9. Think of the Community
Ask yourself, did you help the people around you? You get what you give, have you heard of this line? It’s true!
When you give charity in forms of a smile, a friendly reminder or a even speaking well of others to help build going relationships, it is all reflected back on you. Try it. Make someone else feel good or ease their troubles, like helping mom take out the trash, will make you feel good about yourself. Today I helped my mom.
10. Get good friends
Ever heard of the phrase ’You are who your friends are’? Surrounding is very important in a persons life.
Having friends that are happy for you and your success, correct you when you are wrong, extend a helping hand when you fall and support your dreams will go a long way for you. We don’t need anymore negative people who won’t vouch for us in this world, it is a constant battle you should not make time for.
Tips to gain your Self-Confidence
1. Believe in yourself
Who else will believe in us if it is not us ourselves? When we make a promise to someone, keeping it reflects ourselves. So if we do not keep that belief that we hold true and honest to ourselves, we will flop in everything else, it is a domino effect. For young children, this is taught because they cannot yet think in depth.
Adults around can support this by empowering them. Give them chores and re-affirm them by saying “Thank you I am proud of you, I knew I could trust you with this.” For adults, accept the fact that you are human that makes errors and perfect imperfections.
Be humble enough to accept defeat but confident enough to truly know yourself and your capabilities.
2. Positive Vibes Only
People who think and look forward exude charisma that people are attracted to. It is a choice because it is a reminder to ourselves. You don’t just wake up in the morning and think this way, you have to choose to take life this way.
Life is full of ups and downs. A way to maintain this type of mentality is by always reminding ourselves of our blessings.
Even if you are in debt, you have good health.
Even if you are not good looking, you are smart.
Even if you are not good at maths, you are a great artist or football player.
Unlike health and feelings, an attitude is standing up to life and choosing to always see forward and give you confidence and improve your speaking skills.
3. Body Language
1. Start off my having a good posture. Walk, stand and sit upright. Don’t slouch your back, you will seem timid and unsure. Fact: A good posture sends positive signals to our brain, which reinforces our self-confidence.
2. Look people in the eye, not stare, but have the eye contact regularly. This way, people must pay attention to you and look at you with a level of respect.
3. Last but not least, smile. A smile goes a long way to manage the feeling of the room.
4. Face your fears
Speaking, especially to strangers and in big numbers, is one of the biggest fear in the humankind. Fear is what we don’t understand and experience. Fear can be overcome. And the only way to overcome fear is to just take the leap and do it. Start with preparation and just talk.
5. Get support
The best support are those people who are happiest for you and are cheerleaders at the front row! You know what you want and people who support you will always want you to chase what you want. Nobody needs to understand or agree with you but the support should be there - always. Get yourself the right support.
6. Plan and prepare for success
Preparation is doing everything you possibly could to have a smooth time Speaking with Confidence. After that, it is all fate. Whatever happens, we can always improve or recover - DON’T WORRY TOO MUCH!. So these are the tips for speaking with confidence.