If you feel jittery, tongue-tied and sweaty and nauseating in a situation where you face an audience of at least 20 or so people, you are not the only one who feels so. Ok, let’s face it. Speaking in front of many people on the stage needs quite some guts, which, incidentally I do not possess. Now, that apparently seems quite absurd to my friends who think that I’m the great great grand-daughter of Einstein and that I have brains genetically modified to perform extra-ordinary feats from the time of my birth and it’s very silly for me to think that I cannot talk on stage. Oooh! The thought is so nauseating.
Balancing yourself between the reality and illusion, truth triumphs and illusion fails miserably. The truth is - nightmares cannot be easily forgotten. And I had this particular incident where I kept standing like the statue of Buddha in Hussain Sagar, staring blankly at an audience when I was supposed to talk on ‘Reforming the present educational system’. I knew all the facts, the pros and cons and excellent suggestions to throw away to the intellectuals sitting on the other side of the stage, eagerly waiting for me to speak. I admired their spirit of endurance and at least for their sake, wanted to speak but, alas! Nothing came out of my mouth except a faint, gurgling sound. After much of the anticipation, I opened my mouth and spoke exactly nineteen words which included ‘education system needs to be reformed. The government needs to take effective steps to mend the paralyzed education system.’ After a long pause of wasted time, I uttered a faint ‘thank you’ but actually meant it for the judges who were as patient as the yogic saints of Himalayas. I wondered whether they were into Yoga or meditation.
But, as mentioned earlier, some nightmares were etched but some weren’t that bad and the expected nightmare turned into a beautiful experience. My parents stressed on ‘effective communication skills’ and unfortunately, effective public speaking skills were one of them. I tried to argue, “But my writing skills are not bad, Dad…” but in vain. It was as though I was fighting a lost battle. The next time was a competition to judge the best speakers in my college. Gosh! Don’t they have a much subtle competitions like essay writing or anthakshari or something like that? And my friends insisted that I participate in the competition. I envisaged the faces of those wretched mortals who would be ‘fortunately gifted’ with the same spirit of patience to listen to my ramblings. But then, a though flashed my mind ‘why can’t I do it? Why can’t I talk on the stage?’ And then I decided that I would take on as a challenge and get on with the talking. I had prepared for the topic pretty hard as always and I decided to give a shot but this time, a positive one. I remembered the punch line of a soft-drink ad, “Beyond fear lies success”. Wow! I felt motivated at the thought and mentally thanked the advertising manager who ‘created’ that wonderful line! I spoke everything in an orderly fashion and tried hard not to feel nervous. I felt content and happy at the end because I tried hard to feel calm and free and succeeded in it. Though I did not win any prize, I won something which I didn’t have last time, I won back my confidence, the confidence to achieve what I want, the confidence to face a bigger audience next time. And I advice all my friends who are riding in the same boat, give in your best and leave the rest. And remember that ‘Rome was not built in a day’ and ‘Practise makes a (wo)man perfect.’
Whenever you go to give a speech or a presentation, these tips may help you:-
Do not feel that you are being judged. This is one of the psychological notions that many of us feel. If you know that you are being judged, you might get under stress to perform much better which may result in tension and nervousness.
Do not go without being prepared. Unless you are perfectly thorough with what you are going to speak, you cannot perform confidently.
Take deep breath twice or thrice before you speak. This will bring down the nervousness.
Look confident, use hands while talking. That way, it would build up your confidence.
Finally, give in your best and leave the rest.
