Get your thoughts on the right path for public speaking success

By: Ellen Egan

Your thoughts about your speech before it is delivered are more important than the thoughts running through your head during your presentation.  Yes, its true.  What you think will happen during your presentation will have a powerful impact on what actually takes place during the presentation.

There has been a lot of disucssion recently,  about the power of visualization.  You may think that this is all a  load of fluff, but I can assure you, its a scientific truth.    When you take a few minutes to visualize yourself successfully doing something, you greatly increase your likelihood of success.

This has been proven in many areas.  There is a fmous study regarding freethrows in basketball.  A set of students were tested as to how many freethrow shots they could complete in a set period of time.  Then, one group was asked to practice their freethrow shots every day for a week.  One group was asked to visualise successfully completing freethrow shots for 5 minutes a day for a week.  The third group was asked to do nothing regardig their freethrow shots for the week.  When they were all tested again, as you can imagine, the group that did nothing did not improve and the group that practiced did improve.  But, the amazing thing is that the group that didn’t practice but that visualised successfullly completing their freethrow shots improved at the same rate as the group that practiced.

If, before your presentation, you regularly see yourself successfully delivering an effective presentation in your mind, you will increase your likelihood of success.

Unfortunately, what many people do is the opposite.  They regularly see themselves delivering a failed presentation, and they increase the likelihood of that happening.

My suggestion:  As you are writing your outline and developing the details of your presentation, take a few minutes and visualise exactly how you would like each portion of your presentation to happen.  As you see it in your mind, make it very vivid with bright colors and music in the background.  Then, hear the applause.  You will be amazed at how powerful this can be in increasing your confidence, helping to identify important details of what you want to happen and ultimately ensuring a successful presentation.

To your success,

Ellen