You freeze up when you have an important presentation before an audience. You feel like your heart is coming out from your chest. The words don’t come well from the mouth and you fail. The feeling of frustration after failure always sucks. And stage fright is always a big reason that brings failures in our life. Wouldn’t it be great if you are somehow released from this curse called stage fright? Don’t worry. If there’s a problem, there’s a way and you can overcome stage fright too if you try, I did so can you.
I am a victim of stage fright in regular life.
I learned to overcome this obstacle. I still have stage fright but I learned how to fight against it.
Stage fright is a psychological phenomenon, so it’s difficult to overcome. It’s difficult but not impossible.
Practice
I always practice before I speak before an audience. You might think everyone does that and we still can’t overcome stage fright. But that’s where you and I are different. I don’t practice 10 minutes before going up a stage; I practice hours. Yes, hours. I practice a minimum of 3 hours of practice before I speak before the public. Even “The” Steve Jobs practiced 100 of hours before doing speeches before an audience. Compared to Mr. Jobs I have a long way to go but I recommend practicing a lot of time before speaking in public.
Imagination
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”
Albert Einstein
Imagination is a powerful weapon we all possess. I imagine the steps I need to to do over and over again before speaking in front of peoples. And I keep repeating the steps in my mind. Another important aspect is, imagining your success. I always imagine my success before any kind of speech I do before peoples. It helps to calm my nerves. Better than imagining failures even before speaking.
Adrenaline Rush
OK, this might seem like stupid but an adrenaline rush always helps me through a stage fright. Of course, you won’t have an adrenaline rush in the midst of a stage fright and it could be dangerous. For me, I take a small walk quickly before speaking before an audience. And you know what, it works like magic. My body wants to run away but my heart says no. Jordan Dunbar showed exactly what I mean.
“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that seem right? That means to the average person, if you have to go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
Jerry Seinfeld
Yes, stage fright is much more common than we think.
But I believe overcoming stage fright is easy if we try. If I can do it so can you.
It’s time to stop fearing stage fright.