Ah yes the brain freeze. What do we do when our most primal public speaking nightmare comes true? Can it be avoided? Yes, and no. I think Rick Perry’s stumble here was rather epic, however, most people tend to forget things all the time, as this quote from the New York Times illustrates:
“Brain researchers note that countless memory lapses like these happen to the rest of us every day, whether it’s walking into a room and forgetting why you are there or being unable to recall a name that’s on the tip of your tongue.”
Public speaking involves risk, and there is the chance that you might forget something, or succumb to stress. That being said, there are two sure fire ways to reduce the risk of a Rick Perry-like monumental blunder, and that is to prepare yourself thoroughly (my God man you’re running for president, did you think to rehearse a bit more?), and to always, always have notes in front of you with key talking points (put them on your Ipad if you want to be all tech-sexy). And, yes, eliminating three governmental agencies would certainly be considered “key”.
Of course, if you speak regularly for a living, there is the chance that something like this might happen, as it did for Christina Aguilera when she forgot the lyrics to the National Anthem as she performed at the Superbowl
, or when Obama made an embarrassingly politically incorrect slip of the tongue
at the Congressional Black Caucus. How do you recover? First, breathe, and try to do nothing for a moment. Just sip your water. Attempt to accept, and let the anxiety pass. I don’t buy the notion that anxiety can be “channeled”. Panic sucks. It must be accepted, however, because it’s happening, even if it is not terribly useful. So just breathe, accept the anxiety as it is happening, and allow it to pass. Then, consider using humor. “Oops” is not a terribly witty answer but “I’m not sure what agency I would cut, but I’m pretty sure the oxygen to my brain has been pretty well severed” is slightly better. Then… “ Let me check my notes for the answer
, and circle back around to you in a moment.”
I know it’s not an ideal answer. But it beats “Oops”.
What was your biggest “Oops”?
