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Study 01 of 31

Acquiring Confidence Before an Audience

Overcoming stage-fright through practice and preparation

Hands-free narration of this study — good for the car.

Synopsis

The opening chapter addresses the perennial student question: how to overcome self-consciousness and fear before an audience. The authors compare a frightened speaker to a horse afraid of trains — the cure is repeated exposure, not withdrawal: 'To plunge is the only way.' Even master speakers like Daniel Webster, Gladstone, and Beecher struggled with nervousness, so the beginner should not despair. Two remedies are offered: absorption in one's subject, so that self-consciousness is crowded out the way water displaces air in a glass, and thorough preparation, so that confidence has something real to rest upon. Humility is not self-abasement but a strong desire for greater power to serve. Speakers are urged to assume mastery over the audience rather than surrender to it, trusting that hearers generally want the speaker to succeed. Concluding hints include not rushing to begin, never apologizing, and speaking in a natural conversational tone. The chapter closes by insisting that only practice, not reading, can produce lasting self-confidence.

Key points

  • Fear before an audience is cured by repeated practice, not by avoidance.
  • Absorption in the subject drives out self-consciousness.
  • Preparation is the only rational basis for real confidence.
  • True humility is a longing for greater power to serve, not self-abasement.
  • The speaker should assume the positive, confident position toward the audience.

Key texts

  • Philippians 2:12
  • 2 Timothy 1:7
  • Joshua 1:9
  • Proverbs 28:1

From the book

Chapter I — Acquiring Confidence Before an Audience · Open the reader

  • “Practise, _practise_, _PRACTISE_ in speaking before an audience will tend to remove all fear of audiences”
  • “Self-consciousness is undue consciousness of self, and, for the purpose of delivery, self is secondary to your subject”
  • “Banish the fear-attitude; acquire the confident attitude. And remember that the only way to acquire it is--_to acquire it_.”

Put it into practice

  • Prepare thoroughly and know your first sentences by heart before you speak.
  • Practice speaking before real audiences repeatedly rather than only reading about it.
  • Begin without haste or apology, in a quiet conversational tone.
  1. Comprehension

    1. What analogy do the authors use to explain how to overcome fear of an audience?

  2. Comprehension

    2. Which two fundamental requisites for confidence does the chapter give?

  3. Comprehension

    3. Name three noted speakers the chapter says struggled with stage-fright.

  4. Doctrinal Clarity

    4. How does the chapter redefine humility?

  5. Doctrinal Clarity

    5. What does the chapter mean by 'assume mastery over your audience'?

  6. Contrast

    6. Contrast the speaker who prepares with the one who goes before an audience 'with their minds a blank.'

  7. Contrast

    7. Contrast fear that is yielded to with fear that is mastered.

  8. Scripture

    8. What concluding hints does the chapter give for beginning a speech?

  9. Application

    9. Where have you noticed self-consciousness undermining your own communication, and how might absorption in your message change that?

  10. Application

    10. What practical step will you take this month to 'plunge' rather than merely read about overcoming fear of speaking?