Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [60]
One technique that you can try is to eliminate the “uh” by stringing your words more closely together ever so slightly. Know in advance exactly what you are going to say.
Practice this: When you pause and would normally say “uh,” substitute silence for the sound. Open the back of the throat and breathe silently during the pause. Then firmly launch into your next thought. Keep quiet during the pause.
By being conscious of this speech blemish and with diligent practice, you can completely eliminate that troublesome “uh.” If you try to carry on your normal, everyday conversations without ever using “uh” and practice substituting silence for it in your public speaking, with time and effort you will be able to overcome this mannerism.
If instead of “uh,” your problem is often repeating another meaningless phrase such as “well” or “you know,” the same tips given above should work.
Stage Fright
Many public people—including famous actors and singers—experience varying degrees of stage fright throughout their successful careers. They are not alone; this phenomenon is perfectly normal. In fact, some talented and learned people simply refuse to appear in public, and their stage fright can become a tangible factor in blocking the development of a promising career. Others find that they suffer from stage fright every single time they appear in public. For such people, it becomes a lifelong agony.
Stage fright goes back to the primitive instinct we all have that tells us to run from danger. We learn to use logic and reason to conquer this instinctive reaction.
Do you suffer from any of these symptoms of stage fright? Do your palms sweat, your knees weaken, or you feel that you cannot get your breath? Does your mouth go dry, perspiration break out on your forehead or upper lip, your voice quaver, your stomach feel queasy, or your heart beat so fast you think you will suffocate? These symptoms can disrupt your mental processes and physical coordination and cause your speech to be less than it could be.
For many people, the fear of making a speech in public is very real. They may find private conversational speech easy and natural, but they cannot sleep the night before giving a public speech due to nervous tension. They feel they are not in control and that they will probably be completely speechless or even “die up there” on the stage in front of everyone. But, somehow, they are still alive when it is all over, and they have gotten through the ordeal one way or another. They may even have learned something from the experience.
Even people who have acute stage fright may feel a rush of euphoria (based on a feeling of “I did it!”) or an intense mix of a feeling of accomplishment and relief that it’s over after a successful speech. Then there is the type of person who feels nervous symptoms of stage fright after it is all over. For example, one actress I knew claimed that she never felt stage fright before she went on, but that as soon as the performance was over, her knees began to shake uncontrollably, and she had to run to the restroom to recover her composure.
Stage fright can have a variety of vexing causes. You may shrink from the prospect of being evaluated in public. You may fear the thought of failing in front of a group of your peers. You may experience anxiety at the thought of that big audience out there looking at you. There may be a significant person in the audience who has been critical of you in the past but whose approval seems crucial to your career or whose approval you secretly covet.
It may be that being verbal is a new experience for you and has to be a learned skill. You may be a naturally shy and quiet person. You may be haunted by the memory of one bad experience in public. You may have avoided public appearances all your life and are therefore simply lacking experience.
Or tension may have been caused by an unforeseen technical dilemma, such as a microphone that will not work or an inept prompter operator.
You may have made quite a few public appearances