(Excerpt from Breaking Through the Fear Barrier: Overcoming Presentation Anxiety) How would you like to learn a powerful mental technique used by athletes and a wide range of professionals to assure their success? It’s called visualization. Visualization is an amazing technique you can easily master by closing your eyes and picturing yourself engaged in a particular activity. This signals your body’s actions to be programmed in the exact manner as if you actually did them. A study, conducted at the University of Chicago to determine the effects of visualization on the performance of basketball players, proved this.1 The players were divided into three groups and their scores were recorded. The first group was instructed to practice free throwing at the gym for an hour each day. The second group was told to go to the gym, but instead of practicing, to lie down and visualize themselves successfully engaged in the activity for an hour. The third group was told to forget about basketball altogether. After thirty days, the three groups were retested. Group One, the group that practiced everyday, increased their performance by 24 percent. The group that didn’t do anything related to the sport showed no improvement. Group Two, the one that used just the visualization, improved their scores by 23 percent, only one point less of an increase than the group that practiced an hour a day!
Positive, conscious
visualization is used by athletes and top-notch performers in a wide range
of disciplines. You can use these same skills in order to prepare mentally
for your presentation. Follow these steps: Now visualize yourself walking to the front of the room: · You have good posture, your head is erect and you’re watching whereyou’re going. · Your arms and hands are swinging freely by your sides. · You reach the front of the room. · You set up your notes, if any, and take a few seconds to get settled. · You stand straight, look at the audience and initiate eye contact with a few friendly faces. · You smile! · You begin speaking, while still maintaining eye contact. · You start with your attention-grabber, then move on to the rest of your introduction, feeling confident that you’re off to a great start. After you’ve completed your introduction, visualize yourself delivering the body of your presentation: · Your speech is clearly organized with transitions between points, and you have chosen strong supporting material. · You’re using clear, concise and concrete language. · Now, visualize your appropriate and properly timed gestures. · Next, picture yourself using your visual aids while maintaining eye contact with the audience. The body of the speech has been delivered. You’re now ready to move into the conclusion:
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First review your main points; second, your objective; and
third, a sentence that
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Allow your eyes to slowly scan the room while you nod your head.
Picture the How do you feel after your visualization exercise? That’s wonderful! The interesting thing about this technique is that your mind doesn’t know the difference between reality and the visualization of the reality. What will happen is when you arrive at the speech location, your mind will be saying, “Oh, we’re delivering that speech again; the one we’ve already delivered 12 times! Your mind will not comprehend that this is your first time “live.” While using this visualization technique, try to fill in as many details as possible and rehearse the scenario repeatedly. If you’re speaking at a location you’re unfamiliar with, visit it ahead of time and find out how the room will be set up for the day of your speech. Arrive a little early that day, and practice out loud to make yourself feel more comfortable. If you follow these suggestions, when it’s your turn to speak, you’ll feel that you “own” the room and are ready for a successful performance. To recap, when you use visualization, picture yourself delivering your entire presentation, step-by-step, in a positive light. See the audience warmly receiving your message, and hear them applauding for you. Best of all----feel what it’s like to be a winner! What you’re doing during visualization is programming yourself for success. You’re using the most powerful tool of all—your mind! And…you’ll be following in the steps of many highly accomplished professionals and athletes who’ve proven that this technique works. So… visualize your success and make it happen! 1 Jaime Licauco, “Inner Awareness,” (27 May
2003): To order a copy of Breaking Through the Fear Barrier: Overcoming Presentation Anxiety, please close this window and go to the Educational Materials page of the website. Copyright © 2004 Marsha Freedman |