Stop Winging It! Why Rehearsal Is Your New Habit

Rehearsals for many events, speeches and presentations are very important. Many years ago, we were actors and so that’s our habit. We rehearse stuff. Many people don’t. If they did rehearse more, then their audiences would probably receive a better experience. 

The four stages of rehearsal are: Understanding, Exploration, Practice, and Presentation. Actors have various perspectives on rehearsal. Some spend many weeks or months rehearsing; some turn up for a few days and go for it. Some people think they really don’t need to rehearse. They have an illusory superiority complex, or a self-certification bias, which says they don’t need to rehearse. Yet, these types are missing an opportunity to really improve what they are doing, simply by rehearsal. Rehearsing increases confidence, reduces stress, and physically, is better for you too. 

Understanding means you examine your text, or your content. Exploration allows you to edit the text down and improve the content. Practice increases confidence, which improves the presentation. Simple, isn’t it? But it takes time, and you must allocate time. Many of us over-write our content. Rehearsal makes it more palatable and impactful. 

We aren’t all actors, yet when we present, speak, illustrate, or explain something, to some extent, we are acting. Also, we know that rehearsal helps actors learn their lines, and the same thing goes for anyone else. Rehearsal will help you remember what is essential and makes sure you’re not forgetting it. 

Imagine under-rehearsing a play where you walk into each other, where you’re unsure where to stand, where you don’t know your lines? Or imagine intensively rehearsing something for a few days. Would that be better? Some of us can get away with it, can wing it, but not everyone can. When we watch things that are under-rehearsed, we can tell. There are times when our best performances will happen in rehearsal. Sometimes we understand the structure of how to deliver, but we need the subject and the details to make something interesting. 

If you rehearse something once, it will be 10 times better than if you haven’t. So, if you rehearse a few more times, then how much better will it be?