[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: David Shapiro
Date: 14 Oct 2008
Time: 14:21:21 -0500
Remote Name: 72.71.67.203
Hi Pamela, As a person who stutters, I can relate personally to your predicament. Let me offer my thoughts by way of sharing a story. Several years ago, the Chancellor at our university asked me if I could be available to give the commencement address. Mind you, when the Chancellor asks, you don’t say, “I’ll check my calendar.” You say how happy you are to do so, and later you worry about what you got yourself into. Well, after writing the speech, I could predict every word on which I could be disfluent (i.e., this is common among people who stutter and referred to as the anticipation effect). After driving my family nuts with my anxiety, I went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Great Smoky Mountains where we live to practice the speech and visualize its delivery. I presented to some of the most majestic pine trees, swinging back and forth. They seemed very pleased. Well, you should have seen the reactions of the many tourists who drove by to enjoy the mountains, observing me presenting to the trees. When it got to the day of the presentation, I figured that nobody’s reaction could be as strange as those I had already experienced. One of my colleagues knew what this speech meant to me personally and professionally; she told me that if I became anxious, she would be wearing a big, black rimmed hat and sitting in the center balcony. If I needed, she said to look up, find the black hat, and she would be smiling at me with confidence. Well, getting started was hard, but there she was. With the tourists’ reactions and her smile, I nailed it. You will too. I recommend that when you practice in your place of peacefulness, you visualize the audience and the location. You probably noticed in the recent Olympics that athletes do this as well. Remember that those around you are smiling at you with confidence. We all need to borrow a little confidence from others at times. What goes around comes around; you will return the favor to someone in due time. I’m rooting for you. Your friends and colleagues in Toastmasters are rooting for you. Go for it. Be buttressed by the confidence others have in you. Good luck. David Shapiro