Growing up my older brother was always pretty loud and obnoxious. When he walked into a room his presence seemed to consume it, and not necessarily in a positive way. Over the dinner table, most conversations somehow seemed to always get routed to either talking about him or for him to be the one talking. As a result, I developed the personal opinion that what I had to say didn't matter. Still to this day, he will ask me a question and go on to something else before I even answer.
The repercussions of this that I have seen in my own life are that I typically won't take on a debate or try to convince someone that my way is right, and in a crowd of conversations I will have a tendency to listen rather than interject a thought or opinion on what is being said. Probably my biggest speech anxiety is that no one really cares what I have to say.
One tool that I plan to utilize to overcome this is visualization. I will be visualizing the response and reaction that I want the audience to have and anticipate that to act itself out as I am giving my speech. Also, by choosing a topic that I care about, my passion for it will come out which I know will draw in the audience causing them to want to hear what I have to say. Ultimately, I know that what I have to say is valuable. If it affects even one person I know it was worth going through whatever anxiety I had to go through for that one person to hear it.
Yes, it does matter what you said. Even though your old brother might not pay attention to you, perhaps this is one kind of his personality. Or as a common example of old married couples, most husbands don’t pay attention to their wives because their relationship has been in a long period of time. But it does not mean you were not an important person for your brother. I have many experiences as the same as yours. Sometimes when I advised my children, they were just impatiently said, “I know, I know,” without regarding my words. Your life isn’t just only your brother; there are many people who care what you said. The matter is like public speaking that we can not get all audiences attention. Thus, you just talk what you like to say, and there will be some people enjoy your speech. Finally, I think this class’s main purpose is not to train us to be a professional speaker, whereas the main point is to teach us how to effectively communicate with people. Good luck, I am looking forward to seeing your presentation next Monday.
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