When I was conducting a course in print media at a prestigious organisation, the Director of Studies asked me to deliver a talk on public speaking to a group of students following a diploma course in psychology.
When I entered the classroom I was rather nervous because they had been taught by well-known psychologists and psychiatrists. When I approached the podium my heart pounded and my mouth went completely dry. I asked myself: “What am I doing here?” However, to calm down myself I tried an unconventional tactic. I asked the audience, “How many of you feel nervous when you deliver a speech?” I saw many hands going up. I said, “Well, that’s exactly how I feel right now!” The students responded with a round of loud laughter.
Later I realised that most of us find ourselves in situations that make us nervous. Sometimes you are asked to speak at a wedding ceremony or funeral. Even if you had some experience in public speaking, you will feel nervous at times. Perhaps, you are afraid of saying foolish things at a cocktail party. On other occasions, your mind goes blank and you will find yourself in an awkward situation.
For most of us, the anxiety is so severe that it becomes incapacitating. People call it stage fright and we have experienced it from our childhood. Even those who are very talkative in the classroom find it difficult to address a meeting. I remember a bright student who earned a first class honours degree in English from a state university. She was offered an assistant lecturer’s post in the same faculty where she studied.
On the first day of her teaching some 20-odd students were looking at her and listening to her eagerly. Her mouth went dry and she started perspiring. She told the dean that she was unable to work as a lecturer. She is not alone in her plight. There are many people who are fighting stage fright into their adulthood. However, they have forgotten the fact that with a little bit of social confidence they can manage such stressful situations.
Anxiety
Stage fright can be tackled one step at a time. The impact of anxiety on gymnasts has been investigated at Pennsylvania State University. The investigators wanted to find out whether winners were equally anxious like the losers. They found that both winners and losers suffered from anxiety, but winners knew how to cope with it. The result of the investigation teaches us an important lesson. You should know how to cope with anxiety. The losers dwelt on their fears arousing themselves to states of near panic as they imagined a disastrous performance. On the other hand, the winners ignored their anxiety and concentrated on what they had to do.
Whenever you feel anxiety, take a deep breath and control your fears. Before delivering your speech, look at the audience and be familiar with them. If this is not possible, try to address the audience as if you are a familiar figure. It is a well-known fact that you can talk to known people without feeling any stage fright. When you have to address a group of strangers, you do not know anyone of them. Therefore, you have to find some way to approach them without fear.
Anxiety creates the myth that we cannot function properly at certain times. This can happen even to students sitting competitive examinations. We often hear students complain, “We cannot remember anything we have studied.” Nobody can pass examinations with such fears. Such students have to learn their subjects well even under pressure. If you apply yourself to what you are learning, it is easy to remember any information. No matter how you feel, you have to answer the questions. There is no way out. One day a student asked his teacher, “What if I can’t think of anything meaningful to write?” The teacher told him, “Write anything, even if it is gibberish!”
Get the flow
It is vitally important that you should not give up when you feel nervous. If you are struggling to write an essay, write the first sentence that comes to mind. When once you get the flow, writing becomes easy and pleasant. You will soon find that you can do much better than you thought.
Most people including physicians, psychologists and psychiatrists will listen to you intently, nodding their heads knowingly. They may ask a few questions to break the monotony. They know the art of turning your anxiety into energy.
Making a business presentation or acting in a school drama will help you to let your nerves work for you. If you are going to be a public speaker, try to develop self-confidence to express your ideas fearlessly. Never compare yourself with others. You are a unique person. Comparing yourself with others is a social malady. You will succeed in whatever you do as long as you accept yourself.
As a student, I used to carry a journal filled with private memories. Some of them were painful and others were satisfying. Whenever I felt hurt, confused or lonely, I described them in my journal. One day an unfortunate incident happened. I had left my journal in the classroom or the library. I was terrified that someone would read what I had written. Although I searched for it everywhere, I could not find it.
When I went to the library after a few days, the library assistant gave me the journal I had lost. Although I had not written my name on it, she might have seen me carrying it. While sipping a cup of coffee in the canteen, I casually flipped through the pages and found that a stranger had written something on the last page. It read, “I am a lot like you but I don’t maintain a journal. I am glad to know that we are kindred spirits.”
Self-confidence
Effective public speaking is not a confidence trick, simply putting on an act. True self-confidence has to grow from little to much and much to more. The way to develop self-confidence in public speaking is to speak whenever you get an opportunity. Do not fight shy of an occasion. Welcome it. Today, there are many opportunities to become a public speaker. When you are called upon to propose a vote of thanks, grab the opportunity to hone your public speaking skills. Even asking a question or voicing your opinion in a meeting is most welcome.
The more often you avail yourself of such opportunities, the more at home you will be in getting on your feet to speak. When you attempt something more ambitious you will be less troubled by feelings of unease.
“What a man needs for public speaking,” said Franklin D. Roosevelt, American statesman and a former President of the United States, “is not courage but nerve control and cool-headedness. This he can only get by actual practice. He must, by custom and repeated exercise, get his nerves under control. This is largely a matter of habit. If a man has the right stuff in him, he will grow stronger and stronger with every exercise of it.”
