How many times have you been in a situation of rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms and the pit in the stomach, when you know you are going to be the next up there?

Well most of us have gone through this sometime or another. Also known as glossophobia, public speaking can be a source of stress and anxiety for many people. According to a website StatisticsBrain.com, 74% people suffer from anxiety of public speaking . Instead of 'tips on how to overcome stage fear' , let us start with 'why do we get stage fear'.

                                                                       We as humans , are bound to judge and get judged. Whatever we do is being judged, consciously or subconsciously, by people around us. What if I am not appreciated, what if the audience get bored, or what if I forget something or make any error. These are some of the questions that hooks us up with the fear of judgement and induce nervousness. But if we change our view upon these thoughts slightly, these are not totally negative. we can see it as a feedback. After all, the purpose of our standing there is to communicate with the audience. We can't be appreciated if we do not care about audience response.

 So the key is not to be all critical about the expressions you are going to get up there but to have a welcoming approach towards how your work is being perceived .

                         Let us go through some of things we can keep in mind to slay our next stage encounter with ease.

1. Prepare well!!

It's obvious to be worried if  we have to talk to an audience but don't have any idea what it's going to be about. It's important to be well prepared because people sitting out there already have some expectations in mind. Even if someone is a great orator or have great sense of humour, he will not be appreciated for a long time if the content is not relevant or it's not up to the mark. Confidence and content should go hand in hand for a speech to fulfil it's purpose. Well preparedness incorporated with a confidence level will only heighten your image as a eminent speaker.

2. Take interest

Nobody likes to receive bored expressions from the other side while they are speaking. As a speaker, it's a great boost to our confidence and self-esteem when we see are listeners interested and willing to be a part of what we are doing. But for this to happen we have to be equally, actually way more interested and willing to do this. If you are convinced, convinced enough to go out there and talk about it ,people's got to pay attention. I mean, it's human nature, for instance , we  see someone smiling, we smile. instead of mechanically presenting facts and figures, we should put our heart into it! That's what shows the difference between human intelligence and artificial intelligence.

  All we have to do is to have belief on our work. When we know, what we are going to share is worth for  people' s time and attention,  then there is no reason to be getting nerves!

3. Be well informed!!

There are times when we don't have any prior information about it. you are sitting in the audience and the next thing you know is the  person next on the podium is you. No time to prepare or anything. But one thing is for sure, whatever you'll have to speak about wont be a topic from other planet. We always know the context of what's happening in the room. Just being well informed about what's going on around us, be it the work place or society, it can save us in those spontaneous situations.

Now let's get back to the question again. Why do we fear? Why do we fear anything in first place? For instance, consider a person who fears ghosts. 

Case 1: Somehow the thought of presence of ghosts in his house enters his mind. Case 2: Someone informs him there is a fire in his house. In both the cases he is going to be scared but how he deals with each of them will be different. In the latter one he knows what he should do to control the situation but in the former one, we barely know what the situation is like. The person will be scared to enter his own house because he doesn't know what is it and how to deal with it all. 

The point is about knowing our job. If we know what we are doing, why would we fear? 

So, know your audience, know your content, take a deep dive into your skills and come out as a great orator!!