Instant Speech
THE HUMAN brain is a wonderful thing! It fills with questions and works out solutions to virtually every problem we face and it pursues questions that have baffled us since the dawn of time. But all of it evaporates when we are asked to stand up and talk in front of an audience! The terror of talking to an audience is a nameless fear that has been measured to be greater than the fear of death itself! Anything, people say, is better than being made to speak to a bunch of leering and disbelieving faces!
Fear is the Key! - Actually fear is a good thing! You can only feel fear if you are alive! So that's one big gain! Its natural to every living animal and it triggers responses that help us to enjoy life that little extra bit more than we would have without it! Why do you think people go to horror and scary movies? Why do children look at scary shows on TV through parted fingers over their eyes? Because they enjoy it! The rush of adrenaline is what triggers the joy factor. But. The fear of speaking in public does not have this happy outcome. Why? Because it's irrational. There is no real reason for this fear and its actually panic that blanks you out and when the brain stops functioning, its best to close down! That's why some people faint on stage! Big deal, so why bother with public speaking anyway? I mean millions; even billions, of people get by with ever once torturing themselves in this way so why should we bother? Because if we don't, we lose the best opportunity we can ever have of projecting our personalities so that we can be distinguished from the teeming billions of course! Leadership roles, success, achievement and getting to the top are on the cards for people who have ambition and potential. They must be able to demonstrate who and what they are by telling the world so. I remember as a child watching one of the country's top cartoonists at a function we had in school. He spent the time of his speech nervously unbuttoning and buttoning up his shirt from top to bottom. Needless to say this is all I, and several hundred other schoolmates can remember about him! He may have been very talented but to six hundred and fifty six of us he was what he produced, a cartoon, never to be taken seriously or as a role model!
Getting over this kind of fear is one of the most important steps to success and confidence. If you know what's going wrong, you can put it right.
Blundering Boo-boos. - You are allowed to blunder from time to time, only, don't make a habit of it! We all do it. Even I may have! (How's that for cheek?) But when I used to do them - and I did it quite a bit - it all depended on how I handled it. For one thing, I never got flustered or harried. Remember that talking in public is about 78% visual and about 17% is verbal. The rest is non-verbal, and is usually used for subliminal comprehension. This means that if you look flustered, the audience will sit up and take notice. If you blunder on regardless, the chances are that they'll never notice! Later, you can correct what you may have said; you can even do that when you are questioned at the end. We, as a people tend to wallow in apologies. I can't imagine why! Try never to apologise if you can get by without it, admit a mistake (if its pointed out) and if you can gloss it over with humour, it's the best unguent! 99% of the audience will be admiring your way of getting out of a sticky situation - wishing no doubt, that they could do the same sometime!
Boring is for Oil Prospectors! - If you feel listless, and unconfident about what you are going to say - don't! It's far better you keep your trap shut, than to open it to speak listlessly and maunder on about the immortality of the human soul, especially if you are feeling particularly mortal at the time. You have to believe with an enduring passion what you talk about. If you don't, you won't sound convincing and if you sound uninterested, that's what they will be! On occasion I have not been convinced of what I said, but I threw myself, body and soul, into acting the part and ended by actually convincing myself (and the audience) of what I was saying! It's all in the passion and the enthusiasm. If you aren't, they won't be!
Blank Check! - The one (and only) time I mugged up a speech written for me by my housemaster I climbed the steps to the stage and promptly forgot what I had to say. I went into a daze from which I never recovered and it still recurs fifty years later as my worst nightmare. Ever since then, I make points and may have them written down in large, legible letters on a single index card. Mostly though, I find myself most relaxed when I speak extempore. Actually it's extempore only in name. I will have practiced speaking it, testing several ways of saying things to discover how they sound. But in general, every speech of mine even if it is to different sections of the same group, will be different in all but the essential points. I remember one case where a couple of participants attended both speeches and they came back to me to tell me how much more I had said in the second speech - which I hadn't; its just that they understood more! Breathe deeply and control your heartbeat. Moisten your mouth and breathe only through your nose. Get that heartbeat to normal by plunging your fingers into your ears and pumping in and out for three minutes. Do it properly and your blood pressure will normalise. If you can't get by without mugging up things, just remember your opening and closing and then bash on regardless!
Scout's Honour! - I told you the one thing that I invariably do is prepare even my `extempore' speeches! It sounds heaps better if the facts trip glibly over your tongue to mesmerise audiences! If you know what you are going to say, you'll say it a lot better than if you grope around for facts. Never talk about something you don't know (or can't find out about!) If you are confident, your ability to convince gets a shot in the arm! And, most importantly, you won't get into a blue funk and blank out!
Poifectly Pwacticed! - Its official! You need to grind yourself into dust if you are going to sound poised and sure of yourself. Do you know I even practice pauses and hesitations? I always say that its good to sound as if you meant to do something, and that there's nothing better than a well-practiced hesitation to provoke a train of thought in the audience! I have discovered the best place to practice is the bath! The acoustics are great there and the sound of the shower hissing is wonderful accompaniment to your inflection, modulation and voice pitch! Sometimes if you force friends and family to listen to you, you may get great tips on how to improve. They all have things to do and if you can captivate them, your meal may get burnt, but your speech will be great!
Mingle to Tingle! - I always find that if I get to a venue early, it gives me an opportunity to see things getting ready and the audience as they troop in. If you mingle with them and talk of this and that and generally make `friends' it helps to relax you far more than anything else. Walk on to the stage if you land up early enough and look at the seats, at the technicians and at the harassed host trying to get organised and look after you at the same time. Above all, don't pretend to be anything you aren't! Because every now again the mask will slip and what's underneath will come through, and there will be a mismatch!
It's Good to be Funny Honey!- There's nothing better than humour to anchor speeches in the minds of audience. A laugh relaxes an audience and a relaxed audience relaxes you! Fear and nervousness will become a thing of the past and you coast your way to comfort and eventual success! People remember funny, they like to forget boring, so be appropriately funny. Boring is never appropriate!It may not be natural to stress yourself to speak in front of an audience, but remember if you are nervous, it's natural and it's good! A secret? I get nervous too and I'm thought to be a good speaker. I've found that a twinge of nervousness helps me to stay on my toes and not take the audience, any audience, for granted. They are the customers and they, are Kings! They get to clap and throw rotten tomatoes! Give them a good time, and they'll give you one in return!
Never shy away from an opportunity to speak in front of an audience. It's a great way to advertise yourself and it speaks volumes of your capability to the whole world. Make the most of it!
S.RAMANUJACHARYA
professor1@sify.com
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