2nd Hand Advice

Of the things people fear the most, surveys show the fear of public speaking is second only to death!  How can that be?  I know lots of people who do public speaking with such ease and seeming comfort.  Don’t you wish you had that sort of innate ability to be glib and comfortbale in front of audiences? 

Well, if your like me, the thought of public speaking can be daunting and depending on the circumstance, terrifying.  Having been in a variety of public speaking situations, some successful and some not so, I would say the process tends to be worse than the result.  The anxiety leading up to the event can be the worse feeling on earth.  To get control of the process and minimize  the “jouney”, the anxiety, I came up with 4 principals of public speaking that have helped me. 

  See if they resonate:

1.  Purpose – you must find meaning and purpose in doing the speech. What’s the payoff?  Are you sharing valuable knowledge and experience that someone can really use?  Are you trying to urge an action for a cause you feel deeply about.  Is the speech going to advance your career, get  that new job, a promotion, more money etc.  Indentify how the speech will move the needle for you.

2.  Preparation – there’s nothing like preparation.  Even the guys who speak professionally will tell you to prepare.  That means script your words and thoughts.  Never wing it unless you’ve given the speech a hundred times before.  And even then, you should write out a script because anyone can get brain freeze or forget some detail.

3. Practice – meaning rehearse.  Always practice your speech.  Its foolish not to.  If you can get away with doing a good job without practicing, think how much better you would be if you practiced.  Practice gives you the chance to workout the flow of your speech, to make sure your ideas tie together and to make sure you stay within your time limit.

4.  Prayer – I pray during the preparation process and before the speaking engagement.   I give all my skills, talents and abilities over to God so that he can use me to make greatest impact on those I’m speaking to.  I can’t control the outcome of an assignment, but I can sure mess it up if I come at with the wrong attitude or misguided sense of purpose.  I pray God puts me in the right frame of mind and spirit so that I will give my best and my best will have a positive uplifting impact on the listener.

This entry was posted on May 28, 2009 at 6:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.