âMost people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.â â Napoleon Hill
If you are like most people, when you try a new activity and even after a while when you are doing it, you may be saying to yourself more than once, âI will never get good at this. I am just kidding myself.â This feeling is called the âImposter Syndrome.â More people feel they are an imposter than you think.
Do you feel like an imposter when you are speaking before an audience? Who are you to think of yourself as a speaker having something to say to which people can benefit?
“Life is ten percent what you experience and ninety percent how you respond to it.” – Dorothy M. NeddermeyerI get many questions about how people can calm themselves before a presentation. This is an important question. It is essential that you feel calm and in control when you
âGet attention immediately. Begin your talk with an incident. Arouse suspense. State an arresting fact. Ask for a show of hands. Promise to tell the audience how they can get something they want. Use an exhibitâ â Dale Carnegie, The Quick And Easy Way To Effective Speaking
As much as you would like to think, every word you write is not always worth of Ernest Hemingway, every quote you use in your presentations is not always worth of Henry James, and every word you utter in your talks is not always worthy of Winston Churchill.
What I am saying is, like the rest of us, sometimes what you write is so-so, the quotes you use falls flat, and the words you use when you present might not be the right ones.
“You don’t have to change who you are, you have to become more of who you are.” – Sally HogsheadSpeaking in public is hard work. There is a reason this is so. It’s hard work because the return on investment is very great.Anything with a substantial return on
âOnce a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.â â Horace
Did you ever think of the changes in your world from when you were a teenager to now?
When I was in elementary and high school, we had to do research in the library. I had to get my mom or dad to drive me there or ride my bike there. The research I did was in books. In other words, I had to seek out the information for my term paper.
Boy, how things have changed. Now, instead of seeking out information, information is seeking you out.