Confidence in the Palm of Your Hands

(Presented at Toastmasters International)
Aug 2, 2016
Social Groups

What are the traits of a great speaker? Passion? Yes. Humor? Yes. And…? Cajones! That right, a great speaker needs confidence. Often time confidence takes a long time to develop, with constant training and repetition. But what if there was a way to gain a quick burst of confidence, and without the use of drugs or a DUI. What if I can show you how to help bridge the gap between when you first speak to when you become a master. The key to accessing this confidence is through self-hypnosis. In this speech I will explain why hypnosis work and how you can use it as a tool to build confidence.

Scientists have known that hypnosis works for decades now, however they prefer to use the term placebo effect. The placebo effect is the idea that you can give someone something that has no effect but still generate a very real result simply because the subject believes it works. And this holds true for all experiments, in any study and in every clinical trial. It is the reason why a patient given a a placebo in a depression study will suddenly start feeling much better. The placebo effect is so important that a study is considered useless if it does not control for the placebo effect because there would be no way to assess what caused by the treatment and what was caused simply by the patient believing. Self-hypnosis is the simply utilizing that placebo effect to your own advantage. It is allowing you to make something real simply by believing that it is real.

To make hypnosis work for you, you only need to follow these 4 easy steps.  Step 1: Think about that time you felt wonderful, felt on top of the world. Did you get a high score on your favorite video game or was it when you held your child for the first time. If you cannot think of a situation like that in your life, then draw inspiration from someone else life. It could be when Stephen Curry made the buzzer winning shot to clinch the game or when NASA landed a satellite on an asteroid that was careening a thousand miles an hour through space. How cool was that?! Step 2: Summon up and shroud yourself in that positive energy and excitement of that moment and focus on how it feels. Try to remember every part of that moment, as if you are reliving those exact same moments. Step 3: Ground that feeling in an object or movement so that you can conjure up that feeling whenever you choose. You can see other people doing this instinctively such as when a student reaches for their lucky rabbit’s foot right before finals or when martial artists bow right before they begin their fight. They are summoning the memories and energy that had before, bringing it to their current situation. For toastmasters, I suggest that we ground our trigger in something more fundamental, a hand shake… Step 4: Release your trigger, activate your trigger and gain an instant burst of confidence. Toastmasters, if you ground your trigger then you will get that burst of confidence and energy right before you come up here to speak, right as you shake the hand of the person introducing you and you will be filled with that same energy and confidence as during the best day of your life.

There is no substitution for training and repetition when it comes to public speaking, but confidence should not be the limiting factor for a great speech. So if you get nervous about coming up here, and you feel your hands tremble and knot form in your throat, then just follow the 4 easy steps: think about a wonderful moment, summon the good energy of that moment, ground your energy in a hand shake, and then trigger it as you step up. Voila, instant confidence at the palm of your hands. You may find it hard to believe, but trust me, it works.