Chopping down the
fear
of public speaking
Does your pulse rate
skyrocket when you introduce yourself to a group, address a staff meeting or
give a presentation? If so, you are not alone. Studies have shown that most
people rank the fear of public speaking higher than the fear of death! Even
experienced speakers suffer from stage fright. Steve Allen said that stage
fright is a deceptive term: “It implies that you will feel nervous the moment
you get up on the stage, when in fact you are nervous from the moment you get
the assignment!”
The fear of public speaking can
handicap your career and make you turn down assignments simply because you
are afraid that speaking in front of a group may be involved. Don't let this
happen to you! The fear can be overcome. Public speaking used to terrify me
but now I think it is fun! Here are the steps that led me from nervous wreck to eager speaker:
1. Practical
preparation
Lots
of people make the mistake of underestimating the time needed to memorize a
speech word for word. When professional speakers memorize every single word of
their speech they often need one hour of preparation for each minute of actual
speech time. If you don’t have one hour to practice each minute of your speech
then don't set out to memorizing every single word. Create an outline of your
speech instead and practice saying the speech extemporaneously using the
outline as your guide. Keep practicing until the outline is firmly fixed in your
head. You will be far less nervous if you have an outline that you know
backwards than you will be if you attempt to give a word for word speech that
you haven't memorized properly.
2.
Memorize your first words
Always memorize
the first few lines of your speech because that is when you will be the most
nervous. Practice those first words until you can say them automatically without thinking. If you know you can
say the beginning words by rote you will feel much more secure when you
first open your mouth to speak.
3.
Practice standing up
A surprising number of people
rehearse their speech while they are sitting in front of their computer! If
you do this then you are not practicing the right body language for the
standing up position. Don't make the mistake of thinking you've had lots of
rehearsal when you never got out of your seat!
4. Improve your skills
The better you are at doing
something, the more confident you become. Take the time to improve your speaking
skills. When you have an important speech to give, find a presentation coach who
will listen to it and give you feed back.
5. Motivation
Know what the message of
your speech is, and what result you want to get. When you have a clear picture
in your mind of how your speech will benefit people, it is much easier to relax.
If communicating that message is important enough to you, then you will
concentrate on the message instead of worrying about how yourself and how you look.
6. Attitude
When I competed in speech competitions, I used to hope that the
other speakers would forget their words and be awful. This negative attitude tightened my jaw muscles and
then it was hard to switch to positive
thoughts just before I was called to speak. These days instead of wanting the
other speakers to do badly, I see myself as part
of the team and want everyone to succeed so that the event is a huge
success. That change in attitude and feeling of camaraderie has done wonders for
my ability to relax.
7.
Mingle with the audience before the speech
Use the time before the
meeting starts to talk to the other people in the room so that when it is your
turn to talk in front of the audience, they are not all strangers. It will help
to know where to look for a friendly face.
8. Smile
Putting a smile on your
face makes you feel happier. When you feel nervous smile at someone. Smiling
helps you to relax.
9. Deep
breathing
Before a speech, relax your
shoulders, make sure you are sitting straight, and then take deep breaths for
relaxation.
10. Don’t rehearse at the last minute
Don’t run your speech
through your head in the moments before you are due to speak. It’s too late to
go over it then and if you do, you are telling your subconscious mind that you are
not quite ready. That is bound to create panic.
11. Stand
tall
The position of your body
can affect the way you feel. Try straightening your back and you will see that
it immediately makes you feel more alert and purposeful. When you are nervous
you tend to stand with your shoulders hunched and your back slouched. It is much
harder to be nervous if you are standing straight! Before you walk up to the
lectern, straighten your back.
12.
Make eye contact
When you are speaking in front of a
group and you feel nervous, the tendency is to avoid real eye contact with the
audience.
The more you avoid eye contact, the worse your fear will become. In normal
one-on-one conversation,
there is always lots of eye contact and if you avoid looking the audience in the
eyes then you won't feel as if you are communicating with them. A speaker who
does not feel that they are communicating with the audience is bound to be
terrified! When you begin your speech, look at the audience
directly so that you deal with the fear of eye contact up front.
13.
Inspirational songs
Choose a song that gives you a
positive feeling and use it to condition yourself to relax. The way to do
this is to listen to the song and imagine that you are walking onto a stage
to give a powerful speech. Imagine the sound of the audience applauding to
welcome you and imagine being filled with confidence as you step into the
spotlight. Each time you play the song imagine the same thing. Play it
regularly when you drive to work or go shopping. The song will become firmly
associated with positive feelings about public speaking. You will have a
song that you can play to relax yourself just before you give a public
speech.
14.
Positive phrases
Carry a little slip of paper in your
pocket that has a positive thought on it and look at it just before you go
up to speak. I was given this tip by Darren LaCroix. He wrote "Have fun" on
a slip of paper that he looked just before he gave the speech that won the
2001 Toastmaster World Championship of Public Speaking.
© Sally Chopping 2004
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