Developing Self-Confidence and Being Prepared to Overcome Stage Fright

How to overcome stage fright is a very common and very important problem that students, young people and older learners have and should address. To be able to overcome shyness in front of the public is an accomplishment that will open many doors of development for anybody. You can overcome being afraid of facing the crowd by being developing your self-confidence and being prepared.

· Developing Self-Confidence – There are many ways to develop your self-confidence. One best way is being prepared. Other ways include practicing, participating in smaller activities like team building, parlor games and socialising during social gatherings. To be able to boost your morale, in all these activities, you should not apologise for any shortcomings or weaknesses which you might have whether connected to the activity or not. The only exception is when apologising will improve your confidence in any way. For example, it is okay if you apologise as part of building up what you are about to perform, be it speaking, presenting or singing. Another example is when you give an apology as a humorous act and other intention to get the attention of the audience.

· Being Prepared – To be able to overcome stage fright you should prepare your performance well. On a larger perspective, you can be prepared by slowly developing your skills in performing in front of a crowd gradually. There is some irony here because you can be forced to start overcoming stage fright by having it first. You can start by performing with stage fright because this is the only way to start overcoming it. Fright is phobia and phobias as overcome by dealing with it head on. For example, you can overcome fear of heights by going to high places often. You can start with not so high ones and graduate to higher heights. The same is true with facing a crowd and being up the stage. Specifically, if you know your piece well, you will have less fear of the crowd because you know you can deliver it well. A very good tip here is to set a goal of delivering your piece well and not focus on thinking about the crowd. Then you can focus your senses to achieving this goal you have set and, again, not on the public paying attention to you.