What is Confidence?
Confidence is tough to describe. You can’t touch it, taste it, smell it, or feel it, though you know when either you or someone el has it. It can’t be bought at department stores such as Wal-Mart or found in cereal boxes. Yogi Berra, former New York Yankee catcher and member of the Baball Hall of Fame, once said that every time the Yankees took the field, he was very confident that they would win—or they wouldn’t. Although humorous, Yogi’s remark ems to show that he, like many people, was uncertain exactly what confidence means.
What does confidence mean? Simply put, confidence is the feeling you have when you believe in yourlf and believe that you have control over a specific situation. In other words, you have confidence when you believe that you can get the job done.
You may be asking, “How does this apply to oral communication?” and “How do I build confidence?” To answer the questions, let’s return to the example shared in Chapter 1 about construction a hou. Chapter 1 stated that the construction of as hou begins with the pouring
of a solid foundation and that a solid value structure is the foundation that anchors the spoken word.
Now, what’s the next step?
Carpenters next build the shell of the hou by bolting the outside framework to the foundation. This is what gives the hou its form or shape. Although it is eventually covered, this skeletal framework is esntial. It provides stability against such things as strong winds and powerful rains. Similarly, confidence is the internal skeletal framework of effective oral communication. Anchored to a solid value system, it gives stability to the speaker and makes his or her message believable. Thus, confidence is the attitude or assurance that caus an audience to take a speaker riously.
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第十一本书But not everyone can speak with confidence, even if they understand its importance. What’s the problem? The problem is that confidence in speaking is easy to write about in a book but much more difficult to actually feel in preparing for and giving a speech. Why? Becau of stage fright.
Understanding Stage Fright
What is stage fright?
Many of us are petrified at the thought of having to speak in front of other people. Some of us are petrified at the thought of having to speak in front of other people. Some even suffer from a phobia, or a persistent, irrational fear that caus us to avoid specific situations. Of cour, everyone suffers fears---it is natural to be afraid in ten situations. But when the fears get out of hand, they are ref
erred to as phobias.异常心理学
Social phobias involve the fear of being evaluated by others. We may be afraid that we will be embarrasd or that we will look stupid. If so, we may suffer from performance anxiety, or stage fright. Stage fright is also known as topophobia, while phonophobia is the overall fear of speaking aloud. People who suffer from phonophobia are often afraid of hearing their own voices or of having poor voice quality.
Stage fright is more evident right before we speak and during the first thirty conds or so after we have actually opened our mouths. Heart rates can increa to nearly 200 beats per minute at the height of stage fright, nearly double the normal heart rate. Why Becau too often a
speaker allows his fears to convince him that the worst is about to happen: Everyone in the audience will finally e and know for sure that he is the most boring, ignorant person alive. He might say to himlf, “Who cares about what I have to say?” or “I hate the way I look in front of other p eople. They’ll think I’m ugly.”
One thing is true: Stage fright is real and affects countless numbers of people.
Who Gets Stage Fright?
Studies show that many people fear the thought of giving a speech more than they do the thought of dying. Think about that for a minute and you will realize that stage fright is a rious problem.
Many musical performers, ud to practicing in quiet, isolated rooms, never adjust to playing before an audience. Such performers may have their careers cut short. The singer Carly Simon had millions of people listen to her records and tapes during the 1970s and 1980s, but later she virtually disappeared from the music scene becau of her paralyzing fear of performing in front of live audiences. She suffered from a vere ca of stage fright. Carly Simon’s ca, of cour, is extreme, but a speaker who tells you that he or she has never had stage fright or a rious ca of “butterflies” is probably lying or trying to impress you.
影开头的成语Furthermore, anyone who believes that stage fr ight can’t riously impede the development of lf-confidence might also believe that a polka band will be the opening act for the Rolling Stones.
It doesn’t matter whether you are
Introducing yourlf to a group or strangers,
椎间盘突出最佳治方法Calling a girlfriend or boyfriend on the phone for the first time,
Answering a question in class,电脑切屏快捷键
Interviewing for a job
Giving a campaign speech,
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Explaining your ideas for the prom or for your class float at a committee meeting, or Asking someone to dance.
If a receiver to your message is prent, you may suffer varying degrees of stage fright.
卡奈魔盒What Are the Symptoms?
After being told of a speaking assignment, have you ever had any of the feelings: headache, upt stomach, dry mouth, cold hands and feet, sweaty palms, squeaky vo ice, dizziness, fast heartbeat, an urge to hide, a need to u the bathroom, shortness of breath, hot face, or wobbly legs? If you have, you have experienced some of the symptoms of stage fright.
They are normal feelings. Most people do not like to be evaluated or judged. They also do not like the thought of “opening up” to an audience or of having others examine them too cloly. Mainly, ma
ny speakers lace the confidence to believe that They have something worthwhile to say, that they can say it well, and that people will like them while they are saying it.
The Greek philosopher Socrates said that before we can move the world, we first have to move ourlves. But where do we get the confidence to start moving? How can we make our “internal skeletal frameworks” solid enough to withstand the “strong winds” and “powerful rains” of stage fright? We do the things by making sure that we have an accurate perception of our audience, of the purpo of our speech and of ourlves.
