Did you know that babies (we) are born with just two fears? Loud noises and falling. Beyond those two fears your subconscious was a blank slate. You learned all of your other fears from someone else.

From birth until about age seven we have little reasoning ability. We’re like little tape recorders. Whatever we were told got downloaded into our subconscious minds as fact.

This downloaded information was put there by people who loved you such as your parents and relatives who wanted to protect you. You were bombarded with phrases like, “Don’t go near that water, you could drown!” “Get away from that dog, he’ll bite you!” “Don’t climb up there, you’ll fall and get hurt!” It is no wonder that so many of us fear water, dogs and heights!

It would be wonderful if our formative years were filled with positive, reinforcing comments such as, “You’re so smart”, “You can do anything” or “You are so good at that.” Unfortunately, I know few, if any people who heard more positives than negatives during their formative years.

And so it goes with public speaking. I highly doubt you ever heard an adult loved one say, “I can’t wait to do that speech”, or “I love getting up in front of an audience.” It is more likely you heard things like, “Not me. I’m not speaking at grandma’s funeral”, or “Let someone else give the wedding toast”, or “No way I’m saying anything at Bob’s retirement party.” You learned to associate public speaking with pain – something to be avoided at all costs. After all, if the people who loved you hated it, you certainly wanted nothing to do with it either!

The real problem here is that our conscious mind (thinking, reasoning, decision-making) controls only about five percent of our daily lives. Our subconscious mind which is automatic operates our behaviors the other ninety-five percent of the time which means that ninety-five percent of the time you’re living someone else’s life!

Isn’t it time you get rid of the irrational fear of public speaking that your father, family friend or Uncle Joe put in your head 40 years ago?

Just as your fears were installed into your subconscious, you can uninstall them with a variety of techniques. A good place to start is with repetition. “I am a confident speaker”, “No one knows the material better than I do”, “I have great information to offer to my co-workers”, “People respect my experience and want to learn from it.”

We live in a belief-driven world. You are what you believe yourself to be. Your beliefs control your life.

An excellent place to begin changing your subconscious and your beliefs is with Claude M. Bristol’s book, The Magic of Believing.

There’s nothing wrong with you. Believe it.