Caty Warden
Sean Goatley-Soan
COM110
26 January 2015
Communication Improvement Profile
Lee Lacocca once said that, “You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can not get them across, your ideas will not get you anywhere.” This quote is very true because you have to be able to communicate with people on a day-to-day basis, whether it is verbal or nonverbal communication. I am currently an employee at Monical’s pizza as a waitress in my hometown, and I have to communicate with my co-workers and customers. At work I consider myself a very outgoing person because I am always looking for someone to talk to, but I am more comfortable around strangers at work because so many different ages of people come into our restaurant. When I get around larger groups of people that are around my age I get really shy and find myself being too quiet so the chances of me meeting new people are very slim. The sad thing is that I love to meet new people because having friends is great, but I am just so bad at making small talk. I have only performed one speech in my whole life and it made me very nervous. My speeches are always prepared well in advance and are very well organized, but I have a very hard time doing the things that I have planned to do during the speech, such as hand gestures and eye contact. I definitely need to work on my writing skills as well as my speaking skills. My first goal that I hope to accomplish this year is to better prepare myself for class/speeches. I hope to accomplish this goal by the end of the year so preparing for my speeches will become a habit and will help me to calm down before giving a speech. Right before I begin my speech my hands start to get really sweaty and I get the shakes, so I plan on trying some of the exercises that the book suggests that we do. Some of the exercises that systematic desensitization includes are: taking deep breaths, listening to calming music, walking up a flight of stairs, drinking a glass of water, etc. This will probably be one of the goals I work on the most because my nervousness affects the way I speak around people and I want to be able to talk without being afraid.
Furthermore, I hope to improve my class participation by becoming an active listener and raising my hand each time a question has been asked. I know I should not be nervous to raise my hand during class, but I am always afraid of being wrong and getting embarrassed. It would be amazing if I could accomplish this goal because I think it would also help my fear of public speaking as well as helping me to participate during class. I will meet my goal by encouraging myself to raise my hand more often and telling myself that it is okay to be embarrassed sometimes.
My third and final goal is public speaking apprehension. One of my biggest fears is speaking in front of a big crowd. When I am around a small group of people I am usually not very shy, but a classroom full of people scares me. I lack the skills and the confidence to become a good public speaker. I am going to try so hard to achieve this goal by gaining the skills of a good public speaker. I will practice talking in front of some of my friends and I will also use all of the resources that the communication center offers. If I am able to better myself it will help me become a better speaker and it will also help me become better at small talk and interviews.
I consider myself as one of those people who tries to avoid small talk as much as possible because it makes me so nervous and I usually have a loss for words. Other people will probably tell you that I am super shy at first, but once you get to know me I become very open about everything. This class is definitely not a class that I wanted to take because of my fear of public speaking, but I am going to try to better myself for the future. This semester I am going to focus on improving my preparation for class/speeches, my participation in class, and my public speaking apprehension.