Book Review: Permission to Speak

I’m not “bothered” by speaking, but I also don’t necessarily seek it frequently. I’m introverted by nature, and I also have a habit of diminishing my voice. I’ve worked on this in informal settings (especially text based, like sending a message) and gotten over the idea “Someone else will say it better” or “I don’t need to speak here”. But it’s still in my head. I dislike any speaking feels self promotional, self aggrandizing, etc. and it can be uncomfortable to speak in certain settings aloud due to this.

I really liked this quote on that issue, from the book:“But if you consciously shift to thinking, I’m here to help my audience, you can disarm the panic button. Sounds tiny, right? But when we choose to look out at our audience with kindness and offer what we’ve got with generosity, we actually trigger an entirely different physiological response. The walls come down and we free ourselves to be ourselves. Which is not tiny at all.”