The Spotlight Effect (And What It Means For You)
Taking the “ick” out pf public speaking means dealing with those pesky tricks that your brain plays on you.
That includes the Spotlight Effect: a cognitive bias where you believe that people notice you more than they actually do…that you’re under a metaphorical spotlight of sorts…that your flaws, your successes, your mistakes and those hints you’re trying to drop all loom as large in other people’s minds as they do in yours.
Which, of course, is nonsense. People are too busy dealing with your own stuff to pay much attention to yours.
This is good news, and it’s bad news.
The good news is that the world is not judging you with the same rigour with which you judge yourself. Yes, there are judge-y people in the world, and some of them might be part of your life. But let’s try not to extrapolate their attitudes to the rest of the world. People are not judging you as much as you think they are.
The bad news is: if you think that people notice you more than they actually do, that means people don’t notice you as much as you think they do. So when you’re trying to promote your ideas, your talents and the value that you offer to the world, when you think you’ve put in enough effort to get your message out there…you need more.
…I know, right?
As I write this, we’re still in the midst of COVID-19 self-isolation measures. Yay! That means that lots of us are spending most of your time at home, or at least not spending a whole lot of time with other people. It’s much harder to get noticed than it usually is. We’re communicating with each other in this virtual space, and there’s so much data for everyone to process everyday that most of it just gets filtered out.
So if you want to get noticed, then you need to stand out.
Show your face. Let your voice be heard. It’s a way to make sure that you’re not just part of the crowd.
You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be seen. Snd then you need to be seen again. And again. And again. And again.
So tell me, superstar: what will you do to put yourself in the spotlight today?
Ready to get started? The Fearless Public Speaking online course could be your ticket to a high-impact, low-stress public presence. Check it out!