Magic Trick, or The Art of Misdirection

We have all seen a magician pull rabbit out of the hat. How is this done? Through misdirection: The magician directs the audience to look at the hat in anticipation of the rabbit appearing, meanwhile, the actual trick is happening elsewhere.

Magicians are masters at controlling and focusing the audience’s attention.

You can use the principle of misdirection to manage your speaking anxiety.

How?

Have you ever noticed that whatever it is you pay attention to, gets bigger?

If you are feeling nervous and you focus on your feelings of being nervous, your nervousness grows: I feel nauseous, I’m sweating. My hands are starting to shake. Stop shaking! Is it noticeable?

The more you pay attention to your anxiety, the more signs of anxiety you will discover. The more you worry about being nervous or other people seeing you are nervous, the more nervousness you will exhibit.

So, do what a magician does: change your focus. Concentrate on who you are talking to and/or what you are talking about. This is what you do when you have a conversation with someone and you don’t feel self-conscious. You are focusing on the other person and/or what you are talking about.

To change your focus is different than trying to not to feel nervous. Trying not to do something is giving it a lot of negative attention. Don’t think about being anxious is a direct order to your subconscious to obsess about it.

So, instead, like a magician, you know that there are audience members who are keeping a sharp eye out to see how the trick is done. The magician knows that but focuses on where they want the audience to look. You don’t need to deny your nervousness but you also don’t need to give it all your attention either.

You can be nervous, even noticeably nervous, and still give an excellent presentation. Being nervous may affect your credibility initially, but if you give the audience something useful and you engage them, this is what they will remember, not the fact that they noticed your hands shaking.

The principle of misdirection works on them too.