[MTUCache]

definitely experience...

Back in highschool I had the same strange phobia about public speaking that all American kids seem to have drilled into them throughout their formative years. Speaking in front of a class of 25-30 peers was about the most terrifying thing I ever had to do.

Through college, it got gradually better, as more and more classes required some sort of "speech" in order to pass them.

My first job after college was scheduling survey crews for a consulting company, dealing with contractors' phone calls all day and running the morning meeting, where everyday I'd have to tell all these guys where they were going, what they were doing, and all the details of their jobs. Just a little intimidating for a punk kid, telling a bunch of 25-50 year old guys what their job entails that day. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Anyway, after a couple of weeks, I was literally running these meetings (at 7AM) in my sleep. No big deal at all.

Last year was the last "nervous" thing that I had to do, as I was Best Man at my brother's wedding, and had to give a toast to 200+ friends and family. I'll admit that I was nervous, but it went off great. The anticipation was the bad part. Once I got started it was no big deal at all, and I even got a standing ovation from some of his more boisterous (and admittedly drunk) friends. The entire rest of that evening was people coming up to me to congratulate me and hand me drinks. (Yes, even the worst toasters get some sort of this treatment, but I actually think mine went over very well.)

Experience is the key... as with most things. It's not really about the "practice", but about getting through enough of the terrifying anticipation and finding out that it routinely turns out "not that bad". Eventually, it can even turn out "pretty darn good".