Public Speaker: How I Came to Be one

123Public Speaker: How I Came to be One

I was born into a home where public speaking was an every day part of life. Both of my parents were teachers and my father also being an Athletic Director and baseball coach furthered my family’s experience in the art of public speaking. I always have naturally been an adequate communicator when it came to large groups of people. But as I have matured, I have seen many other aspects of my life besides heredity begin to change the shape of my abilities as a public speaker. My predisposed comfort, my competitive nature, and public speakers I see weekly have come to form my public speaking proficiency into what it is today.

With a baseball coach as a father competitiveness is simply in my blood. When I am given the opportunity to “take it easy” or “just go through the motions” after a rough day or an excellent performance the day before I badly want to take that well deserved break, but my competitive nature does not allow me to because I simply do not want other to beat me. The sports arena is not the only place this competitive spirit is used. In almost all situations that seem impossible this trait helps me battle my way out. Everything can be viewed as a test, a race, a competition; and it comes down to whether or not that situation can beet me. As a young boy I was picked on quite a bit because I was one of the smaller kids in my class, every day on the way to school my father would ask me who was going to win that day: the other kids or me. This did not mean he wanted me to fight or even exchange words; he wanted me to know that I could beat those other kids without saying a word or raising a fist. By not letting their words or actions affect me in any way shape or form, I could beat them. This idea of competitiveness would turn out to be a major factor in helping me excel and find my way out of many situations.

Because my competitive nature got its roots in athletics and a big part of athletics is practice and hard work, I have carried a strong work ethic over to everyday life. The most profound idea I ever got out of sports came from my old and wise defensive back coach, he said, “you have nothing to be nervous about if you are well prepared, hard work will be your confidence. Do not build your confidence on performance, wins and losses, or stats. The only confidence you can truly have faith in is in your efforts of the field. If you have failed to prepare you have every reason in the world to be nervous.” This idea is essentially what I live my life by. I never get nervous, I get prepared. The thought of being up in front of my peers or a group of people does not bother me in the slightest,