Photo by Logan Ripley on Unsplash

I thought that my No. 1 fear was to stand and speak in front of a large audience or to write a book. Oh boy, I was wrong! My biggest fear was (and still is) Live Streaming.

Having been a numbers person, I used to hide behind spreadsheets, reports and be paralysed by the thought of speaking in front of others or writing to hundreds of people.

It has never been my intention to become a TEDx speaker or new J.K. Rowling, yet I thought that being able to engage with my audience from the stage and through blogging is a skillset I’d love to have under my belt. My fear was keeping me stuck and hiding for a fairly long time. And the quote promising to help you break through your fear – Feel the fear and do it anyway – somehow wasn’t doing it for me.

So what helped?

What helped me to beat my fear of public speaking, writing a book and doing live streams? 

 

Practising in front of the bathroom mirror

This may sound insane, ridiculous maybe, but the bathroom is my safest space where my courage seems to emerge and creativity flow (apart from walking in the nature but talking out loud while being on my walk may seem even more insane?!) 

Sometimes after I turn off the washing machine and hang the clothes out or after I brush my teeth in the evening it just happens that I feel the safe space under the dimmed lights of our bathroom. This is when the magic happens.

Ideas start to emerge and then I just stand in front of the mirror and start talking about them facing my biggest critic in front me – my reflection in the mirror – my most critical self.

If talking about the ideas out loud or practising a speech feel good, and my critic in the mirror doesn’t pull stupid faces back at me, I go ahead with it. Sometimes I turn it into a blog post, sometimes I just write it down for the future. And sometimes I just laught out loud. By now my fiancé got used to it as well.

This is how I deal with my fear of speaking in front of a large audience. This is how I started exploring ideas for blog and book writing. And now I am practising how I would deliver online trainings in my FB group.

So this is my way.

Btw do you have any quirky habits or funny rituals to overcome your fear of public speaking or blogging?

I am curious what is yours?

 

Outcome of this insanly crazy exercise?

Becoming a co-author

Book Joy – Recipes for Abundance

I am excited to share that as of today I have become a co-author of this beautiful book. In this fruitful collection of stories, 25 inspiring, entrepreneurial women share their recipes for joy and abundance through tales of overcoming, determination and gratitude. From nutrition, travel and community to spiritual practise, compassion and self-realisation, they each reveal their unique recipes towards creating a joyful and abundant life, available to each of us. I will write about this experience more next week (I think).

 

Organising conferences

Public speaking used to be my biggest fear. I managed to make friends with it when I used to run a community group. A few years ago I was leading a non-for-profit group with other like-minded people and altogether we organised 3 inspiring conferences which helped to form new friendships, inspire and empower women in our Southend community to live their dreams. We supported each other, collaborated and created life-time memories. My personal victory was to deliver my speech to audience up to 100 people. 

And my current biggest fear? Doing FB lives?  

Well, I’ll write more about this journey perhaps sometimes in the future. Last week I learnt that doing FB lives in my private group ZERO TO DREAM JOB CLUB is not the end of the world, in fact I received some good feedback. So I will keep going with that and who knows …

Maybe I turn this content one day into self-study courses for all ambitious and inspired employees who right now feel stuck, overwhelmed or stressed in their careers. Why not?  

 So this my little tip that worked for me.

Facing your fears now? Instead of pushing yourself to overcome it perhaps start with finding a safe space – place where you feel safe and inspired to talk about your visions to bring them alive.

Do you have a place like that already? I’d love to know so feel free to drop a comment.

ps: Finding your dream job is more fun when you’re in a community of like-minded people, I invite you to join our Facebook group –  ZERO TO DREAM JOB CLUB.

Author: AdriAna Kosovska

Professional and certified coach & founder of ZERO TO DREAM JOB ACADEMY

 

I work with employees, couples and organisations that care about

Stress reduction |  Talents and strengths development | Dream job