First Level Leadership
Increasing Critical Mass of Your Leadership Skills
Why do some cows feed near the railway track
and why are some scared as the trains pass by? How would you help those cows to overcome their fear – by taking them to your backyard away from the train or by getting them to graze closer to the noise and tracks…?
What is the link between the grazing of cows and stage fright?
Can we apply the same analogy to a fear of the stage?
Yes! Face the brute (audience) as often as you can. You can't ever attain freedom from fear of the stage by reading a book.
No one learns to swim without plunging headlong into the water
Practice is the secret mantra; you shall have to work out your own salvation.
Do you need sympathy or a push?
I think what you need is a push, not sympathy.
Do your cheeks blanch before your audience?
If yes, then sympathy will only magnify your weakness. Something strange happens in the presence of an audience. It is an indescribable nameless chill which arises from the gaze of a multitude of people.
The eye power of the audience
makes you so self conscious that it paralyzes you. Stage fright is an incurable disease; you need to learn to manage it.
Don’t lose heart if you suffer from stage fright
Most of us are in the same boat. Welcome to the club. Every speaker feels nervous before a speech. This can be termed ‘nervous excitement’ and this can actually help the speaker.
It is only when dryness of the mouth
makes speaking difficult, that it results in a person mumbling and stuttering. That is something to be dealt with. I say this because even when you overcome stage fright, you will still have that restless, excited feeling before a speech.
How do you get air out of the glass?
Pour water into it. In the same way, fill your mind with your subject matter which will thrust out your unsubstantial fears.
Stage fright is an unreasonable consciousness of self
Imagine that the theater has caught fire…and you have rushed to the stage to shout for directions. You would do so without any self consciousness because the gravity of the situation would force the fear out of your mind.
Do you have something to say?
Prepare yourself because if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. If you go without preparation, it is not surprising that you are utterly self conscious – don’t rob the time of your audience. Know your subject better than your audience, and then you have nothing to fear.
Many speakers would lose quite a lot of their nervousness
if they were to take more time over the preparation of their speeches. If these speakers know their subjects well, what, then, are their main fears?
They are the same as the fears of those who are conscious of the fact that they have not mastered their subject as well as they should have done:
• Fear of failure.
• Fear of looking foolish.
• Fear of breakdown.
Is courage the answer but not the only answer?
If you believe you will fail, you will. Over-confidence is bad, but to visualize your failure is worse. You are not a worm in the dust. You are good with unlimited capabilities.
Your Audience wants you to succeed
Strange but true, your audience wants you to succeed. Think logically. Will any man spend his time and money in the hope that you will neutralize his investment by making a boring presentation?
Mental Attitude versus Mental capacity
A fearless frame of mind gets the crown. There is no doubt that you win more through mental attitude than by mental capacity. Your musical notes of self-assurance must sound repeatedly because they are more powerful enough to remove stage fright
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