There is that fear that assails a speaker when on stage, presenting, or preparing to do so. People call it stage fright. In the Speaker’s Handbook, Jo Sprague and Douglas Stuart posit that when the fear of speaking triggers the primitive sense of danger, we experience symptoms such as rapid heart rate, dizziness, butterflies in the stomach, trembling and dryness of the mouth. Muscular tension in the throat can cause the voice to quaver, sound strained, or even confusion. Stage fright also causes inaudibility and can leave the speaker tongue-tied. In other instances, it is responsible for illogical flow of ideas and incoherence in presenters.
Stage fright does not happen just when you first begin speaking in public. It also happens to seasoned veterans every time they decide to make a change of any kind. In Secrets of Successful Speakers: How You Can Motivate, Captivate and Persuade, Lilly Walters writes something worth mentioning now. We can reduce stage fright by 75% through simple preparation and rehearsal. Deep breathing and other physical exercises will take care of an additional 15%. Then, we conquer 10% through ample mental preparation. Zig Ziglar said that FEAR is an acronym of False Evidence Appearing Real. Therefore, what kind of ‘false evidence’ are you feeding yourself before you present? Which words are you telling yourself that make you feel so frightened?
Mark Twain, one of the highest paid speakers of his era, said, “It takes me at least three weeks to prepare an impromptu speech.” A friend of Winston Churchill, R.E. Smith, said, “Winston has spent the best years of his life writing extempore speeches.” Winston Churchill estimated it took him six to eight hours to prepare a-45 minute speech. Then, it is not practice that makes perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect.
In the 7 Steps to Fearless Speaking, Lilyan Wilder presents the five basic sources of the fear of speaking. Firstly, is the career terror, which is rooted in the awful feeling that your job, career, or future, is on the line, anytime you enter a meeting, pick up a phone call, or stand before people to speak. Perfectionism comes second as a source of fear. Perfectionists are usually bright, clever and successful people who expect nothing less than perfection from themselves. High standards and achievements are the upside of perfectionism. Obsessive devotion to flawlessness, however, can become a serious obstacle to fearless speaking.
Thirdly, panic is a source of fear. Some people’s fear exacerbates due to negative thoughts. They listen to pessimistic voices in their heads: telling them that they will goof. Or that they know less or are less than the audience they want to address. Worse still, they worry about very real physical manifestations of their fears; that their hands will shake or voices will crack. The awesome author calls it the ‘panic spiral’.
The fourth fear is avoidance. In the musical, You are a Good Man, Charlie Brown, the procrastinating hero frets over a book report he must give to the class in two days. Should he do it now or wait until tomorrow? The fifth fear is trauma, where the fear of speaking sometimes abut on the memory of something terrible that transpired either in the distant or recent past. It could be a specific incident or a continuing experience. If you feel that your fear of speaking is related to childhood trauma or painful past conditioning, then it is advisable to seek professional counselling
After the exploration of those signs of stage fright, they go ahead to parade the solutions including: acceptance that fearful and nervous while about to speak is normal. No wonder, it is imperative to analyse the causes of fear. Cope with the physical effects of fear through some unique technique of relaxation and tension release. Then, build confidence through thorough preparation and practice. Use positive self-suggestion to combat anxiety and replace negative internal statements with positive ones.
In Speak to Win: How to Present with Power in Any Situation, Brian Tracy posits that the best way to conquer stage fright is to verbalise, visualise, emotionalise and actualise. You should ooze with confidence based on verbalisation because 95% of your emotions rely on what you tell yourself. In a larger sense, your self-talk controls how you think, feel and act.
Therefore, as sage, before you surge on stage to address an audience tell yourself positive things. Then, all improvement in your outer performance starts with an improvement in your mental pictures. This is visualisation. Somehow, when you create a clear, positive, exciting mental image of yourself speaking effectively, your subconscious mind will accept it as a command. Ipso facto, it will give you words, feelings and gestures that are consistent with your mental picture. See yourself standing calm, confident, relaxed and smiling as you go lyrical before the audience. Likewise, see the audience leaning towards you, smiling, laughing, enjoying and hanging on every word you say.
Somehow, you can actually ‘get the feeling’ that you would like to have if you were already a successful speaker. In other words, you can manufacture emotions of happiness, bliss, joy, ecstasy, excitement and confidence by creating these feelings in yourself before you speak. The psychologist William James once said, “The best way to achieve a feeling is to act as if you already had that feeling.” Consequently, in case you verbalise, visualise and emotionalise, you will harbour some successful experience. In a broader sense, even if you have not had it, it will start manifesting in your outside world.
By Victor Ochieng’
The writer rolls out Skills Enhancement Programmes, Public Speaking Training being one of them.
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