cesatha.info

By giving the best presentation of your life you will expand your skills and abilities in public speaking. The expectations you have of yourself will be increased. Your progress towards greater confidence, a broader network base and a widened field of potential clients will be realized. Winners stand out from the pack. They are looked up to and people who are looked up to become leaders. You will be viewed as a leader. People follow leaders.

If you are reading this article then obviously you want to improve your presentation skills. You realize that these skills are important not only in business but in other walks of life as well. You’re not content with your present status quo; you seek improvement, growth and positive change. You are to be congratulated. Just be prepared to work for that improvement – hard work, and lots of it. Paradigms are not broken and reset by slackers.

Do you need to excel? To continually improve and develop? Would you relish change or do you harbor a certain uneasiness about it? Improvement means growth. Growth means change. Approaching change often triggers apprehension. Apprehension though, is not necessarily a bad thing. It can cause us to pause, think and reflect on a course of action we’re about to embark on. Jesus Christ himself said, “Who of you that wants to build a tower does not first sit down and calculate the expense, to see if he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14: 28) That is, consider in advance the outcome(s) of what you’re planning. Embrace the positives. Minimize the negatives, if there are any. Then proceed.

America’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln said, “Whatever you are, be a good one.” You should be proud that you aspire to be the best. But giving the best presentation of your life goes far beyond that. You want to exceed all now established limits – to break the mold so completely that a whole new standard is set. Your paradigms will be forever changed to a new and higher level. Be proud that you want to be skilled at such an important level. “Have you beheld a man skillful in his work? Before kings is where he will station himself, he will not station himself before common-place men.” (Proverbs 22:29) You’re now headed for higher ground. It’s time to get “gussied up”.

The challenge of giving the best presentation of your life will involve work and preparation on your part. How to speak in public and presenting well requires attention to aspects such as:

o Poise and grooming

o Natural use of relevant language

o Application of quotes, anecdotes and humor

o Overcoming any fear of public speaking

o Knowledge of presentation programs and techniques

o Mastery of your presentation topic material

With proper preparation and perseverance there is little you cannot accomplish in time. If you genuinely think you’ll succeed, you will. It’s up to you and you alone. In upcoming articles we will discuss things you can do and techniques you can apply to ultimately give the best presentation of your life – again and again and again. You have my backing and support.

Top performing professional speakers regularly look for help from coaches, gurus, peers, books and other sources. But all the information in the universe won’t help if it’s not translated into useable form. This is where self-coaching takes center stage. Self-coaching is the ability to combine knowledge about yourself with outside information to make meaningful, positive changes in your life and to perform well when you need it most.

No one can teach you anything. Ultimately, only you can take information from a teacher or coach and transform it into your personal power. Savvy speakers take responsibility for their own learning and devise strategies and systems that put information into action.

Here are five mental game success secrets that peak performing speakers can use to improve their self-coaching skills.

1. Be Willing To Grow. If you are reading this article about self-coaching it means you want to grow as a human being. This desire is manifested by your seeking experiences that help you improve personally, as well as professionally. The self-coaching speaker realizes that to grow professionally, personal growth is a must.

2. Cultivate A Beginner’s Mind. The Zen tradition says, that to learn, we must be an empty vessel. If we know it all, we can’t be very open to new knowledge and experiences. The self-coaching speaker realize that an open, seeking attitude allows new experiences to come into our consciousness.

3. Benefit From Mistakes. Peak performers respect mistakes and use them to learn. Poor performers tie themselves up with negative emotion after every mistake. When we view any mistake as failure, our self-destructive emotions mask the valuable feedback around every mistake. The self-coaching speaker welcomes all feedback.

4. Develop High Self-Awareness. Self-awareness is not about what should be-it is about what is. The self-coaching speaker places a high priority on becoming self-aware and realizes that self-knowledge can be about the past or present. Self-awareness is the master skill.

5. Deconstruct Your Personal Experience. Peak performers use self-reflection to deconstruct their experiences. They know that the unexamined life fleets by out of control. Only by reviewing personal experience do we gain some degree of awareness over what we have done and over who we are. The self-coaching speaker embraces this process so new realities and realizations can be consciously created out of that.

Develop A Mental Game Plan. Take these three questions as a start in developing your self-coaching action plan this week.

a. What systems can you develop to increase self-awareness? Can you write in a journal? Speak your thoughts into a tape recorder?

b. Who can you partner with to assist you in your self-coaching quest?

c. How will you translate what you learn about yourself into immediately useful action?

Today I want to share a new book that came my way from my friend, Kristin Arnold. Kristin is the president of the National Speakers Association and an all around fabulous woman. I had the opportunity to spend time with her at the recent NSA convention and was wowed by her not-so-traditional thoughts on the art of speaking and her just-plain practical approach to business.

Whether you’re giving a presentation to your peers, or are thinking about becoming a professional speaker or are already on that path – Kristin’s new book, Boring to Bravo, is a must read. It’s an innovative guide to ditching the gravity wrapped around the way we’ve always done presentations – helping you to take your presentation from ho hum to high-velocity!

The whole concept of speaking is changing so dramatically these days. Think about it. Twenty years ago we were using flat slides and lecturing to folks in a didactic (and often boring) way. That was what we all expected.

Today’s audiences – from our peers to a platform audience – expect so much more than PowerPoint slides and a lecture. The advent of interactive media, conversational discussions on social media and a just plain less formal society have dramatically changed the way we engage audiences. And engage we must if we want to be effective!

Boring to Bravo is the guide we all need to make our presentations sing! The book isn’t the traditional ‘how-to’ book with a step by step (and repetitive) approach. It’s a thinkers guide – stuffed with tips that can be mixed and matched so you can apply just the right ideas to make your presentation come alive.

Kristin offers 90+ practical, proven tips to improve your speaking in a format that lets you look for just the tips that are best for you and your needs. From chapters including “You are your number one visual” to “Let your natural humor shine through,” Boring to Bravo offers practical ideas that will help any speaker get out of that traditional box and take their presentation -and their audiences – to the next level. Kristin also includes inputs and advice from a wide range of professional speakers and coaches, adding even more value for her readers.

She also includes a chapter on how to “Use PowerPoint with Purpose” -which shares great ideas on how to re-energize those PowerPoint slides that have grown a bit stale. If you read nothing else in the book – this chapter will change the way you build presentations, helping you to create interactive slides and visuals that power your message and engage your audience!

This book is now my one-stop-guide for improving my own platform skills and thinking. if you’re planning on speaking – to your PTA, your peers or to a paying audience – this book should be your guide as well!

As a high stakes meeting facilitator, trainer and keynote speaker, Kristin has worked with thousands of senior executives, project managers and team leaders in Canada and the USA, challenging their traditional notions about teamwork. She is known for her concrete approach to teamwork and a treasure trove of practical concepts, tools and techniques her clients can apply immediately to see positive, substantive results.