Are You Afraid of Public Speaking? You are not alone, most people are terrified of public speaking. It does not have to be that way, you can access your inner power in situations where you are experiencing a fear like this.
There is an untapped power in you. You actually use this gift all the time but not always to your advantage. The power is your imagination.
Think about how often you imagine something could happen or worry about something that may happen. You see the image of what you are actually worried about, you feel it and get emotionally involved. Our imaginary world is mighty – it helps us to succeed and it limits us.
“The secret of achievement is to hold a picture of a successful outcome in the mind.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
When we imagine something, we create new neural pathways and we create experiences that our mind can tap into again. We create a frame of reference and cell memories. For example, you have a cell memory of how to ride a bike from your actual physical experiences biking as a child. You can create the same type of cell memory through repetitive imagination and condition your mind and body. High performing athletes use these techniques to optimize their performance and get to the top.
Success Imagery is miraculous to prepare yourself for important meetings, sales encounters, presentations, and interactions that are important to you and your career. Through this practice, two things happen:
- You are setting out the right positive energy and attitude for the upcoming event
- By creating positive experiences through imagery you develop a frame of reference for your mind and condition your subconscious mind
Our subconscious mind cannot distinguish between what’s real and what’s imagined. The subconscious mind drives 95% of our actions and behaviors. In an important meeting, especially when you are under stress, you want to be able to tap into your success habits. Those habits are the expression of your subconscious program that results through repetitive conditioning of your mind through imagery.
In a presentation, or other stressful situation, you will be calm and confident because your subconscious mind believes that you have successfully done this presentation numerous times.
How to Apply and use Imagery for Success
You are the co-creator, the sculptor of your future and your success. It’s easy to apply imagery for your success.
First, identify what you would like the experience to be and the outcome of the meeting or presentation.
Start with a written, detailed description of your desired experience and results. You can visualize each step of the meeting or presentation and the ultimate outcome, the success of the meeting and presentation. The latter can be the positive feedback you received, the agreement reached, the sales contract signed, or the standing ovation as you finished your presentation.
Then, once you have a clear description of your desired interaction and results, take a moment to get into the picture – your own movie.
Begin with your eyes closed and breath slowly and deeply. Picture yourself in your successful interaction. Imagine it in as much detail as possible and make it stronger by using your five senses. You now not only see yourself performing fabulous in the meeting or presentation, you hear the voices of the other people, and you hear the clapping of the audience. Get excited about your success.
To engage your olfactory and gustatory senses, you can envision a delicious cappuccino at the meeting or a gourmet dinner celebration after the amazingly successful event.
Be creative, find ways to engage as many senses as possible. Feel the experience – get into the situation; you are the star of your own success movie. Then, most importantly, get emotionally involved to “cook it.”
Emotions are the heat to cook your success image. The more emotions and excitement you add to your imaginary practice, the better the results and the faster you will reach your goal.
MOTIVATION MOMENT:
“For imagination sets the goal picture which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will, as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.” ~ Dr. Maxwell Maltz
