Don't walk like a tiger on the stage

After a long time, I visited a zoo that day along with my friend who has some special interest in wildlife and is also studying wildlife. We were standing in front of the cage with a tiger inside and I noticed that the tiger was moving from one side of the cage to another side to and fro and I said, “Wow! What a walk” and my friend looked at me and said, “No Praveen, you should not be happy about this walk. I asked him the reason and he explained that in wild life it's called Zoochosis stereotyping behaviour by animals in captivity, because they are in captivity, because they are in the cage, because of having the same routine every day they are under stress, they are in panic and because of this stress, because of this nervousness, because of this panic, they are moving continuously from here to there. This is called pacing and they are not even aware they are doing this. This is happening automatically”. Sad, but the reason I'm sharing this with you is so many times we have seen people on the stage doing the same thing repeatedly. You must understand one thing if you don't like stage, stage is as good as a cage for you, a virtual cage because you can't come out from that stage or that virtual cage unless you're finished, people are watching you, so when you are in this virtual cage and when you don't like the stage, you don't enjoy the stage. You do something similar, you move from one end of the stage to another end continuously. We have seen so many people doing this or they will go backward and forward in a cyclic or a rhythmic manner. People move on the stage but when they are doing this, they have not told their legs to move, they are doing it automatically. But at the same time audience is watching all this and they are giving subconscious clues to the subconscious mind of the audience that they are nervous, that's the reason their legs are not under their control and they're moving automatically. Now a few people say “Praveen come on, you should move on the stage”. Of course you should move on the stage but only when your legs under your control. There has to be a purpose of moving on the stage but this kind of movement, going forward & coming backward or moving from one end of the stage to another end of the stage, adding no value to your presentation, or your talk, or your speech on the other hand might distract the audience, so what we should do? Two things, first identify whether you have this problem or not. Maybe you don't have it, but I have seen so many people with this problem. And one of the biggest reason they don't overcome this, is that they don't identify it. Firstly, self-awareness is very important .So next time when you are going on the stage ask your friend, your loved one, or maybe you record your video on your smartphone and check whether you are moving backward forward unknowingly .Whether you have not told your legs to move still they are moving, if answer to this question is “yes I'm moving”. Take conscious efforts of putting your legs straight and stand on both your legs. Don't move. You can give a world best presentation by just standing on the stage but move on the stage only once you have your legs under control. Sometimes in workshops I keep pins on the shoes, so if you're moving they will fall down. So after the presentation, they have to be there on your shoes or I hold the legs from behind, why? Because one or two exercises like this or even if you are taking a conscious effort of not moving on the stage, after two-three attempts your legs will be under your control. But why we should do all this? Because you like it or do not like it, if you want to be a leader in your life, you have to stand on the stage like a leader and speak.