The 5 Most Common Filler Words In The English Language

One way to ruin your speech and lose the attention of those who have come to listen to you is to add lots of filler words. These are simple words that will fill up space, but do not add anything to the conversation and do not move it further. Filler words are some of the most commonly spoken words in all languages, but when you are participating in public speaking, it is a good idea to avoid them as much as possible. 

There are different reasons why people choose to use filler words. They may use this when they hesitate or pause during a conversation, to be indirect as a way of showing politeness, to indicate the tone or mode, and to express doubt. None of these are good for public speaking though, so it is best to just keep them out of the speech if possible. 

There are a lot of filler words in the English language, but some of the most common are:

1.  Oh: This is one of the most common and is often found right at the beginning of a sentence. It can get distracting and repetitive if it is used too often. 

2.  Like: Like has become very common for young English speakers. There are different ways to add it into a sentence, but unless you are saying that you like something in particular, it is a filler word that can be removed. 

3.  You know: This one can fit anywhere in the sentence from the beginning to the end. It is a way to collect the thoughts during a speech, but it is not necessary and can take out some of the seriousness of the speech. 

4.  Well: This is often just a way to add in more sounds to the sentence or to make the speaker sound better, but it is just a waste of space. 

5.  Uh or umm: These are often used interchangeably and will make the speech very convoluted. This one does not mean anything, but can be used when the speaker is nervous. 

 

Most speakers have a filler word that they tend to use more than they should. When you recognize these filler words and learn how to avoid them in some of your public speaking engagements, your speech will flow better and you will enjoy the way that it sounds while delivering your message. 

To Speak Or Not To Speak?

When having a conversation with someone else, there are two things going on. One person is doing the talking, and the other person is doing the listening. The problems in conversation can often happen when both partners want to talk, and neither really wants to take the time to listen to the other person. 

 

While talking is an important part of communication, if no one is doing the listening, you will end up with hurt feelings, misunderstandings, and a conversation that is not the best to start with. There is a time to talk and a time to listen in any conversation. And you may be surprised by how much listening you should be doing. 

 

It is actually better to spend more time in the conversation listening rather than talking. This is counterintuitive to what we are used to, but there are some benefits. When you take a step back and listen to the other person, you can learn and really formulate your responses, rather than just jumping in with the first thing that you think. 

 

How many times have you been in a conversation, but focused more on your own thoughts and what you should say next, rather than hearing what that other person has to say? Or how often has that happened to you, where it felt like they were not listening to you? This is a good example of why you should listen. 

 

During the conversation, do not focus on what you are going to say first. Spend the time listening to what the other person is saying. Ask for clarification if something is confusing or if you think there is more information that you need. And really listen, rather than focusing on what you will say next. You can then speak up and give your response, based on what the other person has told you. 

 

Do not worry about the conversation stalling. This will actually help it to get ahead and do better because both of you will be on the same page. And even if you do need to pause for a few seconds afterwards before you respond, that is not a big deal. It shows that you are actively listening and trying to come up with the right response for that person, rather than the one that you want to get out there. A good balance between talking and listening will be critical to good communication. 

 

Visualization: The Key To A Good Speech

When it comes to giving one of the best speeches possible, visualization is going to be a great tool to help you out. When you visualize how the speech should go and all the right moves that you can do to give the perfect speech, you will find it is easier to put it into fruition.

Visualize Your Speech 

 

To start, we need to visualize the whole speech. Sit down alone for a few minutes and imagine how you would like the speech to go. Imagine yourself getting up in front of the class, keeping calm and collected as you go. Imagine the words that you would like to say, the tone inflections, and all the other parts that need to go into the speech. Imagine how it will feel when the whole speech is done. Try to add in as many details as possible from start to finish, including how you feel, who is there, and how well it goes. You can use this to help you get through the speech. 

Visualize How You Can Recover If You Mess Up 

 

It is possible that you will mess up during the speech. Maybe you will forget something important that you would like to discuss or you stumble over a word. You may even lose your space in the speech at some point. Rather than getting nervous about it and worrying about how bad it looks, take this time to visualize the mistake and figure out how you will recover. 

 

Sit down and close your eyes. Imagine that you are giving the speech and you do make a mistake. What are you going to do? There are different ways to recover, so spend some time going over them to see how you will respond. This can give you more confidence even if any mistake does happen. 

Visualize How You Will Respond To Q&As

 

If you plan to have a Q&A session with your speech, you can visualize this portion as well. Imagine some of the questions that others are going to ask you about the topic and come up with the responses. When you can imagine some of the potential questions ahead of time, you can reduce some of the stress you feel the day of the speech as well. 

 

Visualization is one of the best tools that you can use to help take control over your speech and to reduce the anxiety that you feel along the way. Try some of the techniques above to see how easy it can be for you. 

 

Active Listening: A Task More Difficult Than Public Speaking

Active listening is the ability of a person to focus their attention on the speaker, to process and absorb what that person is saying, and to respond thoughtfully. It is about really paying attention to what the speaker is saying, rather than daydreaming, worrying about the to-do list, or focusing on what you are going to say next. 

 

Active listening is going to be different than what most people do, which is passive listening. With passive listening, you kind of hear the person in the background, but you do not absorb what they are saying that well. 

 

The goal of active listening is to fully pay attention to what the speaker is telling you. You will look at some of their verbal cues, their nonverbal cues, and listen to them rather than paying attention to some of the other things that are on your mind. It includes asking a lot of questions to learn more about what they want to share, getting clarification and digging deeper when necessary. 

 

There will be some talking when you use active listening. But the listening has to come first. When you actively listen to the other person, you will have a better idea of what they are trying to share, and some of the hidden meanings that are there. And this makes it easier to give a response that will work well with what that person was telling to you, rather than making the conversation go off on a tangent. 

 

Active listening is something that takes time to learn. Too many of us focus on passive listening or are focusing on what is important to us at the time. This is a habit that we need to get out of and since it is lifelong, it is hard to break. Trying a little bit at a time will make a difference and can help you to really have some of the meaningful conversations that you want. 

 

When it comes to having a good conversation with other people, you need to start utilizing active listening. Even trying it a little bit can be enough to make the conversation flow more and helps make the other person feel like you value them more than before. It is a hard habit to learn, but by being empathetic, focusing on the speaker rather than yourself, and practicing, you will get this skill down in no time. 

 

5 Celebrities Who Overcame Their Fear Of Public Speaking

Public speaking can be nerve wracking for everyone. It is normal to feel nervous when it is time to do a presentation or get up in front of people. You may feel like you are the only one who gets nervous with public speaking, but many celebrities also have the same fear. 

 

It is hard to imagine. The people who get up on the screen and give amazing performances that leave us in awe have trouble speaking in front of others too? It’s true! Celebrities can struggle with speaking in front of other people too. Some of the celebrities who have overcome their fear of public speaking include:

 

1.  Rowan Atkinson: Known as playing Mr. Bean, Atkinson finds himself uncomfortable when it is time to speak in public. This can often be seen when he appears on talk shows. To help handle this, many of his characters overcome problems with speaking and he has even stepped forward to discuss the importance of freedom of speech in our country. 

2.  Tiger Woods: Tiger Woods has had trouble with public speaking as well. He uses one of the best techniques to help with this problem though; practicing. He says that before bed, he practices to his dog, who is always a great audience. 

3.  Sir Richard Branson: Though he is known for daring adventures and lots of fun, he does get nervous any time he has to go on stage. To help with this, he starts with a Q&A session to ease into it. 

4.  Thomas Jefferson: Fears of public speaking have been around for years. According to historical documents, Jefferson struggled with this as well. He tended to focus more on his great writing abilities to compensate for his issues with speaking in public. 

5.  Adele: While Adele is known for her amazing singing chops, she does have anxiety when she needs to perform in public. She has been able to overcome some of these fears and become a world-known singer. 

 

Public speaking is something that everyone can be worried about and can give anxiety to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you are giving a speech in front of your class or to a worldwide audience, everyone will feel nervous and anxious at some point. Recognizing the fear and learning how to compensate for it to gain more confidence can help put that fear of public speaking on the backburner. 

 

Why Is Public Speaking Important?

Public speaking is something that can make a lot of people nervous. They would much rather find anything else to do with their time rather than give a big speech to others. But there are actually a lot of benefits to public speaking. It is actually one of the most important, and most dreaded, skills that someone should have. 

 

So, why is public speaking so important?

 

To Win Over a Crowd

 

Whether you are a business leader looking to get funding, an employee trying to get a job, or in public relations and trying to reach a lot of people, public speaking is a good skill to have. When done well, it can be used to help win over any crowd that you would like, big or small. To win them over though, you need to present the audience with a compelling argument. And you need to bring in the whole package. It is not enough to just say a few words; you have to make it an experience. Good public speaking skills can help with this. 

 

To Motivate Others

 

A person who is great at public speaking is able to use some of those skills to motivate their audience to make a change. There has to be something special in the delivery though. The audience will not change simply because you told them to. You need to have a good presentation behind you and be a confident public speaker along the way. Being knowledgeable and having the ability to arouse passion can be important here.

 

To Inform

 

The ability to inform is an important part of public speaking. Many public speaking events are done in order to inform and help people learn things, especially if you are doing the presentation for class. Learning how to be a good public speaker will help you to get your information across so you can make a big impact. Having good knowledge of the topic and being a charismatic speaker can go a long way to help with this. 

 

While many people do not like public speaking at all and may try to avoid it at all costs, it is an important thing to learn how to do. It can help you to persuade, to convince people to follow your advice, and to inform others as well. With some practice and doing it more often, you will find that public speaking is a good skill to know. 

 

5 Rules of Successful Habit Formation

You have decided that you want to change your life. You've got a goal in mind. What can you do to ensure that you achieve success? You know that you will need to adopt certain success habits. The following rules will help you ensure successful habit formation.

Plan

 

Success habits don't just happen by accident. They are created by design. Creating a plan will increase the chances of your successfully creating a new habit. Think of the plan like a roadmap. Include your starting point, the final goal and all the steps along the way. Don't forget to note down potential stumbling blocks and how you will overcome them.

 

Many people include a vision board in their planning. This is a great way to see what your goal looks like and when placed somewhere that you will see it regularly can reinforce the goal you want to achieve.

Focus

 

You must be committed to your goal of creating a new habit. If you are not committed, then the chances of succeeding in attaining it reduce dramatically. It is important to believe that you will create your new habit and to be able to see yourself doing it.

 

Write down a positive statement that affirms you have created your new habit.

 

For example, if you want to create the success habit of waking early then you could write, 'I wake at 5.00 am every day refreshed and ready to start my day. I use my extra time to run for 20 minutes and to eat a healthy breakfast. I spend 30 minutes reading a motivational book because I know that it helps me improve my knowledge and will inspire me. Before I start my work, I make sure that I plan my day and make sure that I know which tasks are important for helping me to achieve my goal.'

Know Yourself

 

Self-knowledge is crucial to creating new habits, as well as eliminating old ones.

 

You need to understand your strengths and weaknesses. It is important to know where you are right now, where you want to be and what needs to change.

 

By knowing yourself you can create a growth mind-set. This ensures that you understand that action is important as by taking action you create change which leads to success.

Practice

 

Habits take 21 days to become routine. This means that you need to ensure that you build time into every day to practice your new habit.

 

To ensure that you complete the full 21 days you need to plan and you need to identify any potential stumbling points that may cause you to want to skip a day. Knowing what might interfere in your daily habit practice ensures that you can put in place plans to overcome it.

 

Positive mind-set is key as is commitment. If you are committed to creating the new success habit and understand why it is important to your overall plans and goals then you will be more able to overcome stumbling points and ensure that you practice your new habit every day until it becomes a routine part of your daily life.

Reward

 

When you set out to create a new success habit you have your plan for how you are going to achieve it and what your life will look like once that happens. Don't forget to build in a reward. Make it something that you really want and value. It doesn't have to be big but it does have to be important to you. By planning a reward when you have created your new habit you will be more emotionally invested in creating the habit.

 

Write down your reward or get a picture of it and put it somewhere where you will see it every day. This will reinforce the desire to succeed and strengthen your motivation to achieve your goal.

 

By using the five rules above you will be creating a positive mental attitude towards creating a new success habit. Don't try to create too many new habits at once. It is simpler and more realistic to create one new habit at a time.

 

How to Achieve Your Habit Goals More Easily

You’ve made a goal. You’re finally going to address that habit. You know the one. You’ve been talking about doing this for a long time now, and you feel good because now you have a deadline. You’ve got this handled.

 

Or do you?

 

Whether you’re trying to break an old habit or instill a new one, the thought has always been that if you make a positive decision toward change, that’s already half the battle. But more often than not, these lofty goals fall by the wayside in fairly short order. Why?

 

The problem with goal-setting is that we’re focusing on the wrong goal. We say we want to lose 25 pounds by swimsuit season or to stop smoking by Christmas. But without a plan in place to make that happen, nothing is going to happen, even if you have what seems like a reasonable timeline in place.

 

What you forgot was how to make a plan, a roadmap for getting there.

 

So, what can you do?

 

1. Break down the task into small goals. If you want to lose those 25 pounds, then how are you going to do it? Maybe you want to exercise more and watch your diet. So make a goal for each week instead. For this particular goal that might mean changing out a meal for a protein shake every day and going to the gym three times a week. Whatever your goal, figure out the steps you need to get there.

 

2. Put those tasks on a schedule. Now that you know what the pieces are, how are you going to make them fall into place? So if you’re planning on going to the gym three times a week, then put that on your calendar. Or create a meal plan and post it somewhere you’re going to see it.

 

3. Track your Progress. Change is slow, so having a visual cue will help you see that in fact, you are making positive strides toward your goal. Remember those sticker charts we had as children? They work on adults too. Or mark on your calendar so you can see at a glance when you’re making progress.

 

4. Don’t worry about the end date. Maybe progress might not be as fast as you’d like. The fact that you’re making progress means you’re heading in the right direction. Keep going! 

 

You can change habits with time and effort. In this case though? It’s more about the journey more than the destination. Make a solid plan and whatever your goal, you’ll get there!

 

Are Success Habits Right for You?

You have probably seen lots of articles about the habits of the highly successful or wealthiest people. It may be that you've read them and wondered if any or all of those habits would be right for you. Would you achieve success if you followed them?

 

The good news is that the success habits of these people are habits that anyone can adopt in their own lives to achieve the success that they desire. After all many of these highly successful people started out from places similar to where you are. They just took action to change their minds and their lives.

 

If you are completely happy with every aspect of your personal and professional lives, then you will probably not want to make any changes. However, it may be that if you look at yourself really closely that you will find something that you want to improve. 

 

Ask yourself the following questions. Be totally honest with yourself in your answers.

 

• Is your life fulfilling? 

• Do you feel happy and contented?

• Do you live comfortably with enough to save for retirement and unexpected emergencies? 

• Are you really happy in your job or is there something else that you really want to do to earn your living?

• Where do you see yourself in 5 years, 10 years or even 20 years?

• Is that where you want to be?

 

If you answered 'No' to any or all of the questions above, then you are ready to change your mind and your life by developing success habits.

 

By deciding to take the initiative and develop new habits dedicated to success and change you will be able to create the life and future you want.

 

What are the success habits that you could develop?

 

Prioritization: knowing what tasks are important and doing those first. Keeping lists can help you prioritize.

 

Goal setting: identifying goals and knowing what to do to achieve them.

 

Waking early: getting up even half an hour earlier each day can help you create a more effective routine and start to your day. Many of the most successful people get up 2-3 hours before starting work each day.

 

Visualization: being able to visualize what you want and what you and your life will look like when you achieve it is a powerful habit for developing success.

 

Exercise and diet: eating healthily and developing an exercise regime is another key habit for success. The mind and body are inter-connected.

 

Self-knowledge: knowing yourself really well is an essential habit for success. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses is important. Eric Thomas, the Hip Hop Preacher, said, “Ask the real you to stand up.” By knowing yourself you can then identify the future you really wish to create.

 

Networking: meeting people who are successful in the area you wish to develop success in can help you gain knowledge, tips and insight. You will also create friendships, partnerships and surround yourself with positive role models.

 

Success habits are not exclusive to the rich and famous. They are valuable habits that can enrich your life regardless of age, gender or ethnicity. If you want a happy and fulfilling personal and professional life then you need to start cultivating these habits today.