"The most difficult people and circumstances are our greatest teachers." Author Unknown
Personal Note from Janet
Recently I had to deal with a few circumstances that were stressful and unpleasant. I consciously chose to use these situations as practice for strengthening my skills in relaxing my body and calming my mind rather than allow tension and negativity to take over my thoughts and reactions.
I was pleased with how I was able to relax myself and direct my mind to work for me, rather than against me, especially when facing difficult circumstances. It reminded me once again of how important it is to make a conscious choice in how we approach stressful circumstances rather than let habitual, negative reactions lead the way.
It is very empowering to know we can work with our mind, body, and spirit to support us whenever we are faced with circumstances that are scary, difficult, or overwhelming. We can do this with our public speaking or performing challenges, as well as any other life situations that are stressful for us. In fact, the more we practice our skills in all areas of our lives, the more we strengthen and reinforce them.
Please stay on the look-out for announcements about my upcoming
Getting Over Stage Fright Workshop, which will be held right outside of Chicago on the weekend of November 7-8, 2009.
If you are determined to build more skills in better managing the anxiety and stress around public speaking or performing, you will not want to miss this workshop! Be sure to take advantage of the Early Bird Rate for signing up! This will be the first workshop of its kind and will give you a chance to practice many skills that I wrote about in my newest book,
Getting Over Stage Fright (which is now at the printer and should be available in about a month's time).
For those of you who have taken my earlier workshop, and for those who have not yet taken a workshop with me, you will find this a very positive and valuable experience that will move your progress a big step forward. I hope you will join us! To learn more about the workshop, visit
www.performanceanxiety.com/workshop.htm and look for further information in upcoming announcements.
One Final Note: I would love to receive some more Pure Inspiration stories for future newsletters so if you have any successes you would like to share - big or small - please write to me at
jesposito@performanceanxiety.com and tell me about your victory so your success can help inspire others. Thanks so much to all who share their stories to allow others to see what is possible!
Pure Inspiration
This column is devoted to sharing stories of success and inspiration with others. If you have a success you would like to share with our newsletter community, please forward a paragraph or two to me, with your first name, last initial (disguised if you feel the need for more anonymity), and job titleand field you work in and I will include it in a future newsletter. We can all be inspired by stories of success and victory, and it is a way for all of us to celebrate the courage, commitment, and effort we are putting forth to get beyond the limitations of this fear!
This email is from a coaching client who contacted me a few weeks prior to an important presentation:
Janet,
I wanted to send you a quick note to update you on how things went with my presentation. To summarize, I couldn't have been more pleased with how things turned out. As discussed, the fear of speaking didn't go away, but due to your recommendation about Inderal, the physical symptoms were easily managed. I combined that with the some of the tips you shared both in your book and in our coaching sessions, and the result was better than I could have imagined. I received compliments from many people on both the content and delivery of my material, and even more importantly, was able to achieve the outcome I had hoped for.
I really owe you a huge debt of gratitude for your help, and stand amazed that I was able to progress as far as I did in such a short time. I will definitely write a review for your book, and am looking forward to getting information about the upcoming Chicago seminar. I still have a long way to go, but for the first time I really believe I have the right tools to be successful!
Thanks again, and I look forward to meeting you in person in Chicago!
Regards,
Len
Executive director, Telecommunications Company
Addendum from Follow-Up Message from my Client: Things have been a bit hectic around here; in fact I was asked on short notice to do yet another presentation yesterday in front of a large group. Amazingly, I was able to apply all the things I learned from you, and it went exceptionally well! I really feel like a door has been opened for me that at one time had a lock that was impenetrable. To be sure, I have much work to do, but with each experience my confidence is growing.
Please write and share any successes you have with speaking or performing - large or small - as I want to continue to post your positive experiences in our Pure Inspiration column and could always use more stories of success to inspire others! Please know that your experiences will never be shared with our newsletter community unless you give me permission to do so!
Using Our Fear as an Invitation to Growth
As a gift to myself (to give myself a break from writing after spending hundreds of hours writing my book) and a gift to you (giving you a sneak preview of my upcoming book), I am including the Introduction to my new book,
Getting Over Stage Fright:
A New Approach to Resolving Your Fear of Public Speaking and Performing. I hope you find it helpful and inspiring and that it whets your appetite for reading the whole book, which will be available in September.
A Few Other Things To Be Aware Of:
~ Be sure to sign up for the Early Bird Discount for the upcoming workshop right outside of Chicago on November 7-8, 2009. The next workshop is being planned for January 23-24, 2010 in Southbury, CT.
The Getting Over Stage Fright Workshop is new and improved and ideal for anyone who has previously taken a workshop with me or anyone who has not yet done so. If you are determined to make further progress with speaking or performing, you will not want to miss this! For more information, visit
www.performanceanxiety.com/workshop.htm.
~ Please let us know if you are interested in attending a
Getting Over Stage Fright Workshop within the coming year and what your preferences are for time of year and location so we can do some planning for future workshops. Please contact Mary at
mary@performanceanxiety.com ASAP with this information as we will consider your interest and preferences in planning the workshop schedule up ahead.
We hope to hear back from you soon!
~ You may be interested in listening to two brief audio segments - the first segment is of me sharing some information about my workshop (a few minutes in length) and the second segment is of my radio interview with Sally Jessie Raphael (10-12 minutes in length). Please take a few minutes to listen to one or both segments, which can be found by visiting
www.performanceanxiety.com. You will also find on the home page an audio recording of a one hour interview I did on the topic of public speaking fear and I encourage you to take some time to listen to this, as well.
~ Many people have enjoyed being part of a yahoo discussion board that was set up by someone in our newsletter community for people who share the fear of public speaking or performing and want some support and camaraderie. I encourage you to visit this site and post something on the discussion board. It is incredibly helpful to come out of our isolation and aloneness around this fear and to give and receivesupport with others. The address for this discussion board is
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/speakanxiety.
Action Steps:
1.
Decide to use all difficult and stressful life circumstances as practice for strengthening and reinforcing the skills you are learning so that they will be that much easier to access and apply when you face public speaking or performing challenges.
2.
Consider taking a Getting Over Stage Fright Workshop and/or having Private Coaching Sessions with me to help you become much more effective in dealing with this challenge. This provides a great way to break avoidant and self-defeating patterns and helps you move a big step forward in your progress! Please contact me at
jesposito@performanceanxiety.com if you are interested in an individual phone session and contact Mary at
mary@performanceanxiety.com with any questions about the workshop.
3.
Please take a few moments to write a review of my book and/or CD on
www.amazon.com (and/or
www.barnesandnoble.com) if you have found my book and CD helpful to you. Many thanks for taking the time to do this to support my efforts!
4. Please send me any feedback and suggestions throughout the year as I greatly value knowing what is most helpful to you and will give consideration to all feedback and suggestions I receive.
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I hope to get to speak with you sometime soon and to meet you at the upcoming Chicago workshop!!
