Acquiring confidence before an audience

Acquiring confidence before an audience

There is a strange sensation often experienced in the presence of an audience. It may proceed from the gaze of the many eyes that turn upon the speaker, especially if he permits himself to steadily return that gaze. Most speakers have been conscious of this in a nameless thrill, a real something, pervading the atmosphere, tangible, evanescent, indescribable. All writers have borne testimony to the power of a speaker’s eye in impressing an audience. This influence which we are now considering is the reverse of that picture, the power their eyes may exert upon him, especially before he begins to speak: after the inward fires of oratory are fanned into flame the eyes of the audience lose all terror.

Students of public speaking continually ask, “How can I overcome self-consciousness and the fear that paralyses me before an audience?” Did you ever notice while looking from a train window that some horses feed near the track and never even pause to look up at the thundering carriage, while just ahead at the next railway crossing a farmer’s wife will be nervously trying to quiet her scared horse as the train goes by? How would you cure a horse that is afraid of cars, graze him in a back-woods lot where he would never see steam-engines or automobiles, or drive or pasture him where he would frequently see the machines?

Apply horse-sense to ridding yourself of self-consciousness and fear: face an audience as frequently as you can, and you will soon stop shying. You can never attain freedom from stage-fright by reading a treatise. A book may give you excellent suggestions on how best to conduct yourself in the water, but sooner or later you must get wet, perhaps even strangle and be “half scared to death.” There are a great many “wetless” bathing suits worn at the seashore, but no one ever learns to swim in them. To plunge is the only way. Practice, practice, PRACTICE in speaking before an audience will tend to remove all fear of audiences, just as practise in swimming will lead to confidence and facility in the water. You must learn to speak by speaking. Do not be disheartened if at first you suffer from stage-fright. For one reason or another, some master-speakers never entirely overcome stage-fright, but it will pay you to spare no pains to conquer it.

Be Absorbed by Your Subject:

Blacksmiths sometimes twist a rope tight around the nose of a horse, and by thus inflicting a little pain they distract his attention from the shoeing process. One way to get air out of a glass is to pour in water. Apply the blacksmith’s homely principle when you are speaking. If you feel deeply about your subject you will be able to think of little else. Concentration is a process of distraction from less important matters. It is too late to think about the cut of your coat once you are upon the platform, so centre your interest on what you are about to say, fill your mind with your speech-material and, like the infilling water in the glass, it will drive out your unsubstantial fears.

Self-consciousness is undue consciousness of self, and, for the purpose of delivery, self is secondary to your subject, not only in the opinion of the audience, but, if you are wise, in your own. It is sheer egotism to fill your mind with thoughts of self when a greater thing is there, TRUTH Say this to yourself sternly, and shame your self-consciousness into quiescence. If the theater caught fire you could rush to the stage and shout directions to the audience without any self-consciousness, for the importance of what you were saying would drive all fear-thoughts out of your mind.

Far worse than self-consciousness through fear of doing poorly is self-consciousness through assumption of doing well. The first sign of greatness is when a man does not attempt to look and act great. Before you can call yourself a man at all, Kipling assures us, you must “not look too good nor talk too wise.” Nothing advertises itself so thoroughly as conceit.

Have Something to Say: The trouble with many speakers is that they go before an audience with their minds a blank. It is no wonder that Nature, abhorring a vacuum, fills them with the nearest thing handy, which generally happens to be, “I wonder if I am doing this right! How does my hair look? I know I shall fail.” Their prophetic souls are sure to be right. It is not enough to be absorbed by your subject, to acquire self-confidence you must have something in which to be confident. If you go before an audience without any preparation, or previous knowledge of your subject, you ought to be self-conscious, you ought to be ashamed to steal the time of your audience. Prepare yourself. Know what you are going to talk about, and, in general, how you are going to say it. Have the first few sentences worked out completely so that you may not be troubled in the beginning to find words. Know your subject better than your listeners know it, and you have nothing to fear.

After Preparing for Success, Expect It:

Let your bearing be modestly confident, but most of all be modestly confident within. Over-confidence is bad, but to tolerate premonitions of failure is worse, for a bold man may win attention by his very bearing, while a rabbit-hearted coward invites disaster.

Humility is not the personal discount that we must offer in the presence of others, against this old interpretation there has been a most healthy modern reaction. Any man who thoroughly knows himself must feel True humility but it is not a humility that assumes a worm like meekness; it is rather a strong, vibrant prayer for greater power for service, a prayer that could never have uttered.

Washington Irving once introduced Charles Dickens at a dinner given in the latter’s honour. In the middle of his speech Irving hesitated, became embarrassed, and sat down awkwardly.Turning to a friend beside him he remarked, “There, I told you I would fail, and I did.” If you believe you will fail, there is no hope for you. You will. Rid yourself of this I-am-a-poor-worm-in-the-dust idea. You are a god, with infinite capabilities. “All things are ready if the mind be so.” The eagle looks the cloudless sun in the face.

Assume Mastery Over Your Audience:

In public speech, as in electricity, there is a positive and a negative force. Either you or your audience are going to possess the positive factor. If you assume it, you can almost invariably make it yours If you assume the negative, you are sure to be negative. Assuming a virtue or a vice vitalises it. Summon all your power of self-direction, and remember that though your audience is infinitely more important than you are, the truth is more important than both of you, because it is eternal. If your mind falters in its leadership, the sword will drop from your hands. Your assumption of being able to instruct or lead or inspire a multitude or even a small group of people may appal you as being colossal impudence, as indeed it may be; but having once essayed to speak.

BE courageous, it lies within you to be what you will.MAKE yourself be calm and confident. In facing your audience, pause a moment and look them over, a hundred chances to one they want you to succeed, for what man is so foolish as to spend his time, perhaps his money, in the hope that you will waste his investment by talking dully?