The Pause [For Men Only]

We've all felt it. Presence. Tension. Rising anticipation coupled with excitement and mild discomfort. We can't look away yet we crave the release...of...pressure.

The experience is felt when we listen to music playing or actors speaking. And it's not in the notes or the words. It's in the silence. That's where the power lies. In our contemporary world, where every space is filled--with images and sounds--the power of absence, of empty space, has been largely forgotten.

Orators understand this. A speaker who holds your attention will always tease you with pauses. He will wait in between points, sentences, even individual words, to increase tension. The release of that tension generates emotional energy that captures his audience.

The opposite of this is speaking quickly, rushing from one sentence to the next, in the misbelief that the more words one speaks the more information is conveyed, and, therefore, the more successful the presentation will be. It will not. It will simply fall flat due to a lack of emotional impact.

Most of the time, an audience doesn't remember the words that are said. What remains after the speaker finishes is the emotional experience of having been in his presence.