John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Brilliant Communication

Idea 33: How to become natural

Many things – such as loving, going to sleep or behaving unaffectedly – are done worst when we try hardest to do them.

C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia

When you stand up to speak, the eyes of other people – possibly hundreds or even thousands – will be on you. Humans tend to find that experience uncomfortable, if not quite threatening. It takes time and practice before you can learn to relax and be yourself in the goldfish bowl of attention.

The experience is not unique to public speaking. We all know how difficult it can be to act naturally in certain circumstances. We should think nothing of jumping a four-foot-wide stream, but a similar gap several thousand feet up on a mountain can make us freeze ...