By: Morty Lefkoe

Article reviewed by Janet Schlarbaum

If you’ve had an intense fear of public speaking for many years and have tried a variety of ways to rid yourself of the fear – without success, you’ve probably concluded that you’ll probably never get rid of the fear. Or, if you do, it will take a lot of time, effort, and reinforcement.

If you’ve used most conventional methods to get rid of your fear, you’re probably right. The Lefkoe Method (TLM) is not one of the conventional methods. In fact, TLM is the only technique that has been scientifically proven to totally eliminate the fear of public speaking. As Lee Sechrest, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, concluded after conducting a rigorous scientific study with 36 people who had a severe fear of public speaking, “The Lefkoe Method was effective
in virtually eliminating the fear of public speaking.”

How does TLM work and how can you use it to eliminate your fear? About twenty-one years ago I developed the first in a series of interventions that literally do produce rapid and permanent change. The most important one, the Lefkoe Belief Process (LBP), eliminates the beliefs that are the primary cause our behavioral and emotional patterns.

After helping hundreds of people with a fear of public speaking totally eradicate that fear, we discovered that there are only a few beliefs that cause the fear.

Mistakes and failure are bad.
If I make a mistake or fail I’ll be rejected.
What I have to say is not important.
People aren’t interested in what I have to say.
I’m not capable.
I’m not competent.
I’m not important.
I’m not good enough.
What makes me important or good enough is having people like me or think well of me.
Change is difficult (or takes a long time, or needs reinforcement, etc.)
Inherent in public speaking is at least some fear.

When all these beliefs are eliminated and a little bit of de-conditioning occurs, the fear is gone–permanently. Let me show you how the LBP works for one of these beliefs.

David, one of my clients, complained of significant fear whenever he had to speak in front of a group. His palms got sweaty, his heart pounded in his chest, and he had a hard time focusing on what he wanted to say. One belief he had formed that contributed to this pattern was Mistakes and failure are bad. Intellectually he knew that learning from mistakes was a good thing, but deep down he felt this statement was the truth for him and, in fact, making mistakes upset him.

When I asked David what happened early in his life that led him to that conclusion, he replied: “Dad and mom got annoyed with me whenever I didn’t do what they wanted, when they wanted. They’d say things like: ‘Can’t you ever do anything right?’ and ‘How many times do I have to tell you?’.”

After telling David that his belief was, in fact, a valid child’s interpretation of his parents’ behavior, I asked him for a few additional interpretations of what his parents did and said. In other words, what else could their behavior and statements mean other than the meaning he gave it as a child?

His answers included: My parents thought mistakes and failure were bad, but they were wrong. My parents didn’t get angry because I made a mistake or failed; they got angry because I didn’t do what they wanted, when they wanted. The way my parents reacted had little to do with what I had done; it was a function of poor parenting skills; a couple of parenting courses and they might have treated me very differently.

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By Gerron Woodruffe

What are the risks?

Today, investors are increasingly turning to global markets to find opportunities for profit, giving urgency to the issue of protecting returns from foreign exchange risk. While there are many excellent investment opportunities to be found all over the world, volatility in the currency markets can and does affect the profitability of these investments. An understanding of how currency rate movements can affect profits can help investors protect their bottom line from this uncertainty.

A vivid example of how currency volatility can impact profits occurred in 2004. When the US stock market rallied, investors from Europe converted their euros into dollars and sent them to America to take advantage of these opportunities. Even though there was a 30% gain in the US stock market that year, it was accompanied by a 22% decline in the value of the dollar. Although the European investors had earned substantial returns on their stock investments, their profits were reduced considerably when converted back into euros because of the decline in the dollar.

Investors in other markets are also exposed to currency rate risk. When interest rates increased in the UK, many investors sent capital from all over the world to profit from these higher returns. However, at the same time, the price of the US dollar versus the pound sterling was subject to great volatility -as much as 11% in 2004! Because of this, the amount those American investors took home varied greatly depending on when they chose to convert their profits back into dollars.

How to protect your profits

Protecting your investment profits by hedging in the spot currency market is simple and inexpensive, and completely protects your account against currency market volatility. Hedging entails taking a position in the market so that the effects of foreign exchange movements are neutralized, and gives you the peace of knowing that your profits are not vulnerable to movements in the currency market.

The principle of a hedge is simple. An investor who has invested his funds abroad wants to make sure that he is protected if the currency of the country he has invested in depreciates. Depreciation in the value of the foreign currency would mean that he gets less of his home currency when he converts his profits. The simplest way for an investor to avoid a loss like this is to sell the currency of the country where he has invested in the spot currency market. If it depreciates in value, he will profit from his spot position.

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