Overcoming Nerves - In Public Speaking And Entertaining - Part 1
"Every time I think about speaking in public, my heart pounds and I get sweaty just thinking about it." Believe me, it's not easy. This means that most people who have to speak in public don't even bother to take the steps needed to make it less of a terrifying ordeal. But fear is a natural response, and some people are virtually powerless over anxiety-like reactions.
I've never been paralyzed by stage fright or any other kind of nervousness that preludes a public performance. I've always considered it a test of whether or not you know your material well enough.
This article is designed to help you overcome the fear associated with being on stage and communicating with an audience. It's pretty basic, but it will give even the best speaker confidence in his/her abilities because they'll realize that they too can overcome their fears. The quality of my speaking dates back before I even entered college. My first public speaking experience was in elementary school and I did quite well.
It's important that you realize that we're all afraid of being in front of a group. We all have butterflies before stepping out on stage, but the difference between the effective speaker and the nervous one is that the effective speaker feels great when he or she gets up. The nervous one feels terrible. The effective speaker focuses on what he wants to say and how to get his message across. The nervous one focuses on the other people in the audience, whether they're handsome or ugly. It's all about filtering out distractions and focusing on what needs to be said.
So fear can make you focused, but you still need to properly prepare for your performance so that you save yourself from what could be a disastrous incident. You have to practice, connect with your audience and create an atmosphere that is conducive to good speaking.
How do you get rid of the fear and start doing a good performance? You run the speech through your mind in an environment where the anxiety-producing factors are eliminated. That way, when you're in front of a group, it's nothing new - you've been there before.
The first thing you must do is practice aloud to yourself as if you were talking to another person. It doesn't matter if you're in a bathroom stall or behind locked doors, but practice. Be sure to include all the visualizations, inflections, and emphasis that you'll need for your speech.
Practice at least two to three times a day if possible. It's very important that you practice out loud because when you're talking in your mind it's all very vague. You can't feel the inflections or visualize the audience as well. Practice communicates emotions to the mind faster than just thinking about it.
Practicing before you go to sleep is a good idea. That way you can dream your speech and get used to what it will be like while still in bed. When you lay down, close your eyes, and start thinking about the speech, picture yourself at a podium or talking to people from on stage. You're going to do this every night for several days until you feel completely confident that there's nothing new about public speaking when you stand in front of an audience.
Practice in front of a mirror. This will give you the chance to see yourself and your gestures more clearly. A mirror is important because you want to make sure that you're being positively expressive, not negative and hesitant. Also, it's easy to practice in front of a mirror. You can stand in front of it and talk straight into it as if you were facing an audience.
Finally, you need to come up with your own personal relaxation techniques. For example, I visualize something fabulous when I'm getting ready to speak. Sometimes it's a beautiful sunset, a tropical island or the inside of the ocean. It just depends on how you want to think about it. When you're in the shower, take a few minutes and think about how great it's going to be when you get up on stage because you'll be talking rather than being in there waiting for the water to warm up.
Just remember that practice increases your chances of success as much as any technique you may use.
Conclusion:
If the speaker derives happiness and satisfaction from the contest of words, then he or she will be able to speak with ease.
So don't be intimidated about your timings, use them as a challenge, but remember that there are no limits to your efforts and no obstacles on the way. Fill up your mind with stories and rekindle old memories in order to narrate them. Whenever you feel that you've reached an impasse, restart your speech from a point before it left off.