THE NECESSITY OF PERSISTENCE

                                                                  PERSISTENCE

       WHEN WE START TO LEARN ANY NEW THING, LIKE FRENCH, OF GOLF, OR PUBLIC SPEAKING, WE NEVER ADVANCES STEADILY. WE DO NOT IMPROVE GRADUALLY. WE DO IT BY SUDDEN JERKS, BY ABRUPT STARTS. THEN WE REMAIN STATIONARY A TIME, OR WE MAY EVEN SLIP BACK AND LOSE SOME OF THE GROUND WE HAVE PREVIOULSLY GAINED. THESE PERIODS OF STAGNATON, OR RETROGRESSION, ARE WELL KNOWN BY ALL PSYCHOLOGISTS; AND THEY HAVE BEEN NAMED, " PLATEAUS IN THE CURVE OF LEARNING". 

        STUDENTS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING WILL SOMETIMES BE STALLED FOR WEEKS ON ONE OF THESE PLATEAUS. WORKS AS HARD AS THEY MAY, THEY CANNOT GET OFF IT. THE WEAK ONES GIVE UP IN DESPAIR. THOSE WITH GRIT PERSIST, AND THEY FIND THAT SUDDENTLY, OVERNIGHT, WITHOUT THEIR KNOWING HOW OR WHY IT HAS HAPPENED, THEY HAVE MADE GREAT PROGRESS. THEY HAVE LIFTED FROM THE PLATEAU LIKE AN AIROPLANE. ABRUPTLY THEY ACQUIRED NATURALNESS AND FORCE AND CONFIDENCE IN THEIR SPEAKING.

         YOU MAY ALWAYS, AS WE HAVE NOTED ELSEWHERE IN THESE PAGES, EXPERIENCE SOME FLEETING FEAR, SOME SHOCK, SOME NERVOUS ANXIETY THE FIRST FEW MOMENTS YOU FACE AN AUDIENCE JOHN BRIGHT FELT IT TO THE END OF HIS BUSY CAREER, SO DID GLADSTONE; SO DID BISHOP WILBERFORCE; SO DID A  SCORE OF OTHER EMINENT SPEAKERS. EVEN THE GREATEST OF THE MUSICIANS HAVE FELT IT IN SPRITE OF THEIR INNUMERABLE PUBLIC APPEARANCE. PADEREWSKI ALWAYS FIDGETED NERVOUSLY WITH HIS CUFFS IMMEDIALTELY BEFORE HE SAT DOWN AT THE PIANO. NORDICA FELT HER HEART RACING. SO DID SEMBRICH. SO DID EMMA EAMES. BUT IT VANISHED QUICKLY, ALL OF THIS AUDIENCE FEAR, LIKE A MIST IN THE AUGUST SUNSHINE.

        THEIR EXPERIENCE WILL BE YOURS, IF YOU WILL BUT PERSEVERE, YOU WILL SOON ERADICATE EVERYTHING BUT THIS INITIAL FEAR, AND THAT WILL BE INITIAL FEAR, AND NOTHING MORE. AFTER THE FIRST FEW SENTENCES, YOU WILL HAVE CONTROL OF YOURSELF. YOU WILL BE SPEAKING WITH POSITIVE PLEASURE