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Another way mentally to prepare yourself for public speaking is to visualize yourself successfully delivering your speech. People in sports use positive imaging or visualization all the time. They imagine vividly how if feels to see the golf ball plop in the hole, they hear the sound in their mind, they hear the roar of approval of the crowd, they taste the sweat of concentration in their mouth.

You can do the same. Imagine yourself behind the lectern, imagine people in the audience smiling at you, imagine you hear them laughing at your jokes, imagine the audience giving you a standing ovation at the end of your speech.

Exaggerate and emotionalize your expectations, live the action in your mind....do this for at least 30 seconds, many times a day for an extended period of time, and you’ll be surprised at the positive results your positive imagination can bring to you. Why does this work? Visualization will allow your subconscious mind to record imagined success stories about you, in any chosen activity or behaviour. Your belief system will file these imagined success stories as if they were real.

Remember, the subconscious mind does not know the difference between real and imagined.

Thus the feedback to your conscious mind, when you think about an activity, will become positive rather than negative. Your previously stored negative information is overpowered by positive thoughts.

Your belief system is changing from negative to positive and, therefore, your attitude towards any chosen new behaviour or activity, such as public speaking, will become positive rather than negative.

It will take some time, (21 days at least) to re-program your subconscious mind. Psychologist generally agree that a particular behaviour will likely become a habit if performed for a minimum of 21 consecutive days. It takes at least 21 days to get used to a new home, so give your mind some time to get used to a new way of thinking. During this time don’t allow your negative imagination, your false self to take over. Don’t allow your mind to get into the “what if” mode. You will see positive results if you persist in the reprogramming techniques.

The ideas shared in this chapter are not new, but they are summarized here, so that you can take advantage of them in your pursuit of becoming a more confident public speaker.