Ways to overcome stage fright

If you have stage fright then read this article completely to understand the ways to overcome stage fright.

Even the best of us and the most confident of us can suffer from stage fright. Stage fright is common for everyone from movie actors to students. If you suffer from stage fright, then you may be familiar with the feelings of being nervous or even completely weakened at the thought of performing in front of an audience. This can cause a huge toll on self-confidence and cause some people to leave school or a job or pass up a progression.

Now whenever we go on stage, we have to convey our message to the people. First let’s look into what is communication. The word communication comes from the Latin word communis meaning common. Before we can communicate effectively we must establish our commonness – the better we do that, the greater the potential for effective communication.

Now why do we get stage fright? Because we are thinking negative and selfish. The basis of all the fear is negative and selfish thought. We might be thinking that what if people don’t like my speech and they start laughing. What if after the speech my friend teases me because of bad delivery.

So we must have a positive and selfless attitude to overcome stage fright. Let’s look into the attitude we must have before we go for the speech on stage which will help us in getting over stage fright:

•Its not about me: When we are trying to communicate with people it’s not about us – it’s about them. We have to change the focus from inward to outward.

•Be mature: Immaturity – means selfishness: Too many goals I pursued and tasks I completed were about my desire, my progress, my success. This is a selfish attitude. Maturity is the ability to see and act on behalf of others. Only mature people who are focused on others are capable of truly connecting with others. If you want to learn how to become mature and selfless then you can read: How to be selfless.

•Come out of Ego: work for a cause, not for applause, live life to express not to impress, and don’t strive to make your presence noticed just make your absence felt. We must not be interested in the compliment which we receive after the message instead we must be interested in the people whom we are speaking to, they must get help because of our speech. This is the kind of attitude which will able to connect us with others.

•We must value everyone: To add value to others one must value others. Many times we are so focused on our own agenda that we often overlooked and ignored many people. We think that If they are not important to my cause they didn’t get my time or attention. This is wrong. We need to see the value others possess.

•Insecurity: Because of a lack of positive and affirming environment we feel less secure or confident. We feel insecure because we think that other people will think negatively about me. People will laugh at me. But actually those who are positive they talk positive and those who are negative they talk negative. We can’t do much to control that. So we must not think about that. Insecure leaders want approval from the audience.

And more he wants to seek approval from them the more engrossed he becomes in himself and then how he can impress others. As a result he is more likely to fail to meet the need of the moment. If you want to learn in detail how to be always positive then you can read how to develop positive thinking.

So in the ways to overcome stage fright the first thing which would help is to have a positive and selfless attitude. If we have the above-mentioned attitude then we will not have stage fright. You can connect with others if you are willing to get off your own agenda, think about others, and try to understand who they are and what they want. If you really want to help people, connecting becomes more natural and less mechanical.

All you have to do is keep reminding yourself that connecting is all about others. So whenever we go on stage don’t think what you are going to get just think about what people are going to get who is listening. We must try to express ourselves not to try to impress others. We must speak for a cause not for applause.

To develop a good attitude in yourself you can read one famous book by John Maxwell “winning with people” you can buy that book at Winning with people

Now to understand the ways to overcome stage fright lets look into a few positive thoughts which you can say to yourself to feel confident:

 YOU ARE INTERESTING: Remind yourself that the topic you’re talking about is interesting and that the audience is listening. Do not think that your material is not interesting enough.

 Want to express don’t want to impress: Just say to yourself that I just want to express myself and I will focus on what I have to deliver. By this all the negative thoughts that whether people are liking or not, whether they will be happy or not, all these thoughts will go away.

 I am good orator: Say to yourself that my voice is unique and I am a good orator as I can deliver my content well. This positive self-talk helps.

I have a YouTube Channel where I post videos on developing a positive attitude and you can subscribe it through https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYGdbB_F0qii4Zo_rn-rCyg/videos?view_as=subscriber

Now next in the list of ways to overcome stage fright is some BODY exercise:

 Relax your BODY: Relax your body before steeping on the stage. Ease the tension and stiffness from your body. Then steady your voice and unwind your mind. If you mess some lines up on stage, don’t panic! keep going and avoid any pauses.

 NO COFFEE: Unless you’re normally a caffeine addict, don’t have caffeine or tea on the performance day. It will actually make you feel more nervous and jittery, instead, have some citrus or juice as it will calm your nerves.

 BREATHE deeply: Take a deep breath. Whenever we are in tension the oxygen content in the blood reduces. So by taking a regular deep breath we can maintain the oxygen level in blood. And that finally reduces our stress.

 Smile when you go on stage: Smile and greet people, be confident. Act as a friend rather than a professional. Wear something good and appropriate. Work on your posture – keep it straight. Appearance matters!

 DO THINGS THAT YOU LOVE BEFORE GOING ON THE STAGE: By which we mean that do whatever you want to do before you go the stage. The purpose of this is to uplift your emotional mind so that you can perform energetically. Have your favorite food, stretch some muscles, take deep breaths, and listen to your favorite songs. You can even talk to your best friend or even try greeting some random people. In summary, do anything which will entertain you and take your mind off the additional anxiety.

Now good preparation would definitely help you to deliver better. I have mentioned a few tricks which you can use while preparing for your speech. This preparation is one of the ways to overcome stage fright:

 IMAGINE YOUR SUCCESS: If you imagine your success then you will be filled with confidence which will help you to actually succeed. This is a process which most of the successful individual use before going for any important performance. Imagining success helps us to become more confident and that helps us in succeeding. We would perform like we are already a winner.

 PREPARE: Plan your stuff in advance and read it aloud to hear your voice. You can also practice in front of a mirror. Practice and remember even if you mess something up, improvise!

 MAKE YOUR MATERIAL ENGAGING: This may sound like common sense but its one of the biggest reasons for stage fright. People are worried that everyone will think of them as boring. And the reason for that is people themselves feel that their material is boring. Even if you’re delivering or performing a very flat material, find some ways to make the content more easy and engaging. If you follow this through then you’ll be less worried about performing as you will feel that your content is interesting. We must be confident in our material that it is interesting and informative.

 CREATE YOUR AUDIENCE AND HAVE FUN BEFORE YOU FACE YOUR
REAL AUDIENCE: Practice in the presence of your family, friends, and if that’s not available you can stand in front of a mirror and even in an empty auditorium or a hall. Because of this, you will get used to the idea of performing in front of your public. Repeat till you almost learn it.

This will give you self-confidence and also give you scope to see out and correct the defects in your own performance. If it’s a speech, exhibition, or debate, just know the concept you are going to explain completely. Now some try to cram it completely and others just remember the point. Find out your own strength and do it accordingly.

 LEARN SOME SKILLS THAT REQUIRE PUBLIC SPEAKING: Learning to develop your speaking or drama skills is good, but it’s usually not enough to essentially overcome your fear. You must label and correct any negative understandings, beliefs, ideas, images, and forecasts related to public speaking or even performing. I will write one article on how to deliver a good speech, you can read that to learn the skills that require for public speaking.

 REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE NOT ALONE: It is essential to learn that stage fright is a natural survival mechanism that causes many of us to create the release of adrenaline and cortisol, which are two trustworthy chemicals that make you turn and run if you are being chased. So once you understand that it is very common phenomenon and everyone faces this then you will be more prepared for it.

Now while delivering the speech here are the ways to overcome stage fright:

 ACCEPT YOUR FEAR: Do not try to overcome the sensation that you are worried about going on stage. Just accept it, deal with it and hold your head high, do not fiddle with the mike or your notes and calm down. Be positive that it’s only for a few minutes and not forever, then this will help you to make you give the performance of your lifetime. Visualize your successful outcome. Nothing can go astray. Even if it does, just laugh and push on.

 CONNECT WITH THE AUDIENCE: Talk to members of the audience to make them more comfortable. Crack a joke and put some elements of humor in your presentation, but not too much. This will help you see that the audience members are just common people like you, and will help you handle your anxiety.

 OPEN YOURSELF TO OTHERS AND SURROUND YOURSELF WITH LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE: Don’t be afraid and describe people that you are anxious and have an outright panic of the stage. This will do nothing but heal your self- confidence. Alternatively, you can also start concentrating on the requirements and expectations of your audience. You will be excited when you realize that you will actually be able to reach out to your audience and they are listening.

Now ways to overcome stage fright after the speech:

 CREATE A LIFESTYLE TO FIGHT THE STAGE FRIGHT ON A LONG TERM BASIS: This means eat fruits every day and exercise well. Try engaging in group conferences. Speak to people at work and gym instead of building a shell throughout you. Do yoga and reflection regularly. Go out with buddies on trips. Start a craft. Doing all these will increase your self-esteem and surely, you will never get stage fright. If likely, avoid alcohol, caffeine, and sugar completely. They will easily make you more nervous.

 Don’t panic if you have not delivered as per your expectation: Delivering good speech confidently comes with experience. All the great orators were the same as us in the initial days. They have worked on themselves and were able to build those positive and selfless thoughts which help them to be confident while delivering a speech.

And with the experience, they have developed a lot of skills. We just have to keep working in this direction and you will find your next speech would the better than the previous one 🙂 You can visit my Facebook page where I post video and text to motivate others and I update it regularly: https://www.facebook.com/pg/betterworldsjp/videos/?ref=page_internal

Personal advice on ways to overcome stage fright: It is something that helped me as an orator. I had stage fright too, all of us do. It was during my school days when I got on the stage for the first time, though I loved the rush, I forgot everything and my legs went weak. The second time I went on the stage when I was running my organization Zenify.

This time I worked on my attitude first. I just thought that I am speaking because if want to motivate my team. This had helped me a lot. I was confident and my complete focus was on delivering so that people get motivated.

One more thing that I did was I thought that people got motivated by the speech even before I delivered it. In short, I faked it till I made it. I acted like I already won. Soon I saw myself winning rather then I wanted to win !! The vision of winning will always make fear disappear.

You can connect me through my professional network on LinkedIn also here is the link:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjpurohit/ You can also connect me through my Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/purohit.sudarshan/

The first few seconds are the most terrifying and the most important. To boost our confidence we must start it either with something which we know very well like our own introduction or we put it to others like starting with a question which we would ask the audience. If both are not the possibility then remember the first paragraph of your speech. It will help to reduce those first few flutters and you will have fewer chances to make a mistake then.

If you are ready and know your topic very well then the rest of the speech will appear both elegant and conversational, which when it comes to public presentations is the sweet spot of speeches and performance. Now if you are very good at remembering things then you can remember the complete speech and if you are not then just remember the main points and deliver it. Both kinds of orators have their own charisma.

But the most important advice I can give you is don’t lose confidence. If you do make a mistake then just correct it and think that I want to make people understand what I am trying to say and don’t want to impress. Once you will think that then you will be able to correct your mistake and will be able to add something on your own so that the gaps are filled and you make a smooth transition to the next segment.

If you make a mistake that is very visible then make a joke and say that it slipped your tongue and laughed. Joking helps during these times as it makes the audience see you as a human and not keep you under a microscope. It also changes the mood and acts as a break from all the heavy talking.

If you forget something then also make a joke out of it. Say that you forgot and follow it with something charming or funny like its very usual to forget in such an audience. At the end of the day, you are human and so is the audience. They know you are human and humans make mistakes and that they can be scared. I am sure some of them have stage fright too. Humans mess up every now and then. It’s okay.

I am sure after reading ways to overcome stage fright you would want to read how to overcome the fear of failure:https://sudarshanpurohit.com/overcoming-fear-of-failure/

If you think that you have any point which I have not mentioned in this article then you can send it through the comment. I will add it 🙂

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