Читать книгу Unlock Your Public Speaking Potential - Antony Boone's Zogg - Страница 6

Each person has unique needs for speaking in public. There are those I have met who only have very high level and non-specific needs to learn this skill. For example somebody was in an audience and saw an excellent speaker and felt that it would be great to learn how to speak like that. I fitted that category when I joined my public speaking club – I had no real reason for wanting to speak in public, and I believe that is why it took me lot longer than I would have liked to get rid of my nervousness. It’s like deciding to drive from Auckland to Wellington. If your reason for taking the journey is to get to Wellington for a business meeting at 09h00 on Monday morning, you are more likely to arrive there on time. If, on the other hand, you decide to drive from Auckland to Wellington for no specific purpose, you might take a few detours along the way or stopover at some other destination. Given this scenario you might arrive in Wellington a few days later than you expected the journey to take if you arrived at all! Public speaking is like that. Learning to speak in public is like arriving in Wellington in time for that meeting. That is your goal.

If you have a specific reason to get to Wellington you will check your gasoline, tire pressure, oil and water and then consult the map or set your GPS for the most direct route. You will pack your bags, get behind the wheel of your car and start the journey to Wellington. You will estimate how long it will take you to get to various cities and towns along the way and complete the journey. That way you can quickly determine whether you are ahead or behind schedule at various points along the way. The same applies for your public speaking goals. If you are clear about why you want to speak in public (getting to Wellington for an 09h00 meeting on Monday), you plan to read and study up on public speaking first, get some coaching and mentoring in public speaking, join a public speaking club and begin practicing your speaking (preparing your car, checking the maps, estimating timeframes and getting into the car and commence driving). You are more likely to succeed if you have a clear reason for wanting to speak in public, you document your goal and the milestones along the way, what actions you need to take and by when.

Ask yourself – why do I really want to learn public speaking skills? Have you been asked to be the Master of Ceremonies at a wedding, or to give a technical presentation at work, or to talk about a topic of interest at a business convention? Are you in search of that next promotion realizing that it will involve a lot of presenting and public speaking? You really need to know what the compelling reason is, for setting your public speaking goals, so that once you have written them down as S.M.A.R.T. goals you can begin visualizing yourselves as effective public speakers in a specific situation.