Image Credit: photosteve101
So just exactly what happens to your heart when you get asked to give a speech? Does it drop down into your shoes? It might not be the actual process of delivering the speech that gets you or your understanding of the importance of public speaking, but rather the idea that you are going to actually have to prepare a speech to give that can take your breath away. This can be a big task. The secret to making it a doable task is to understand just exactly what you are going to have to do to get from here to there.
Get Started
If you are going to create a speech then guess what, you’ll need to get started. In order to get things off the ground you are first going to have to make sure that you know what the goal of the speech that you’ll be giving is. Got it? Good. Write it down! By doing this you’ll be able to remind yourself why you are doing this during the speech creation process.
In order to get your audience to arrive at your goal, you’re going to have to take them on a journey. That journey is going to be made up of a number of small steps that are all leading in the same direction. Any one of your goals may seem too large to achieve in a speech. Break it into smaller tasks and all of sudden this will become a doable thing.
Setting Deadlines
When you are asked to give a speech, there generally is a date associated with it. What this means for you is that you already have a deadline that you are working towards. Don’t despair! This is a good thing. Deadlines motivate us to make progress towards creating our speech and getting ready to deliver it.
Scheduling
In order to make sure that you’re going to be ready to deliver your speech on the correct date, you are going to need to take the time to schedule all of the various activities that you are going to need to do. What you are going to have to do is to determine how much time you are going to need and then set aside time to work on these specific tasks.
Tools
The good news about having to get ready to deliver a speech is that you have a number of tools available to you. The first of these is your ability to focus. In today’s always on world it can be far too easy for any of us to lose our focus. Simply by turning the mobile phone off, sitting somewhere where there are no distracting screens, and taking the time to focus on what we want to tell our audience can allow us to create a great speech.
Next, pick some spot where you can position images of what you are going to want to tell your audience. By moving these images around you’ll be able to build a story. This sequence of images will allow you to tell a story that will allow you to achieve the goals of your speech.
Finally, creating a speech can be a long process. What this means for you is that you need to celebrate your successes along the way. As you get the individual parts of your speech created, mark them off on a master list. As the checked off sections grow, you’ll start to feel a real sense of accomplishment.
Monitoring Your Progress
Ultimately you are the one who is going to be responsible for completing the task of creating your speech on time. What this means is that every so often you are going to have to take a step back and determine where you are at – how much work do you have left to do? If you find that you’ve fallen behind, create a new schedule that will allow you to catch up. The key to take the time to make sure that you are on track.
What All Of This Means For You
If you want to deliver a great speech to your next audience, then you are going to have to find a way to schedule your time in order to create such a speech and share the benefits of public speaking. In our busy world this has never been easy to do and it just seems to be getting harder and harder. The good news is that with a little bit of effort on our part, we can get this task done and done correctly.
The most important step in scheduling your time to create a great speech is simply to get started. Once you are moving, set a deadline for you to achieve the completion of your speech. This will motivate you to make progress. Next, schedule your time and make sure that you use the tools that are available to you. Finally, always be monitoring your progress and make adjustments if you fall behind.
You can create and deliver a great speech. You simply need to know how best to schedule the time that you have before you have to give the speech. Use the techniques that we’ve discussed to manage your time and you’ll be sure to wow your next audience!
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™
Question For You: What’s the best way to make sure that you stay on track when you are creating a speech?
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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!
What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
As public speakers we get asked to give all different types of speeches. One of the most commonly requested types of speeches is the motivational speech. This is a speech that is designed to make a very specific impact on your audience: you want to leave them feeling better about themselves – clearly this has a lot to do with the importance of public speaking. These are powerful speeches; however, just exactly how do you go about creating them?