By some accounts, public speaking is the No. 1 fear in America. Millions of people are limiting their careers because of this irrational fear.
Let’s define stage fright. For me, it’s a cold, clammy feeling of anxiety that churns in my stomach. It drains me of all my resources. I can’t think, talk, breathe, or hold a piece of paper without people seeing it shiver in my hand.
Yet, if I don’t have a smidgeon of stage fright stuck in my throat, I probably won’t have enough energy to get people’s attention and move listeners to action. So here’s the question: how can you reduce your stage fright so that it’s a positive, not a career-destroying negative?
[ctt tweet=”Open up a can o’ whoop-ass on your stage fright @simswyeth” coverup=”9EAbq”]
Here are three counterintuitive ways to open up a can o’ whoop-ass on your stage fright. Each one is based on solid scientific research, not folklore, like “Pretend your audience is naked,” or , “Look over their heads,” or my least favorite of all, “Rehearse in front of a mirror.” All I do when I rehearse in front of a mirror is primp. So let’s get to it.
1. Don’t calm down. Get excited.
A study on anxiety-inducing activities like public speaking found that the intuitive response–consciously trying to calm down–isn’t the best strategy. Instead, people instructed to say to themselves, “I am excited” before a stressful ordeal, performed better. The counterintuitive finding comes from a series of experiments conducted by Alison Wood Brooks, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. The basic takeaway? Forget about calming down. Surely it makes sense, then, to try and calm down? Actually, the evidence suggests not. In one experiment 140 participants were told to prepare a public speech. Before delivering it, half were told to say to themselves “I am excited” and the other half “I am calm.” The speeches were videotaped and analyzed by independent raters, who found that those who’d said “I am excited” consistently performed better than those who’d told themselves “I am calm.” Excited people were more persuasive, competent, confident, and persistent. Plus, they spoke for longer–presumably because they were enjoying it more. So, don’t say, “I’m nervous.” Say, “I’m really excited.” And mean it.
Next…2. Stop doing relaxing breathing exercises