Control.
It’s probably the most important thing that you’ll learn in your life, particularly control over your fear and your anger. And yes, controlling your fear is essential for good public speaking. But don’t try to control the events that happen around you.
You’ll achieve control with rehearsal and experience, through which you’ll start to gain a knowledge of your limitations, and crucially, your strengths. If you’ve done the preparation, then you have your foundation right there (see my post ‘Kung Fu Candour’).
You have to accept everything as it happens, embrace the chaos, and gain strength from it (if you’re a parent, you’ll have had to go through this process already at some point). By accepting what you can’t control when public speaking, you have greater influence over the result because you retain a level head, giving yourself the best environment for good decisions.
Be the calm in the eye of the storm. And not the fool whose umbrella’s just turned inside out.
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