How not to forget your speech

Do you know how to walk?

No, really ... think about it.

When you walk down the street, do you have any challenge with doing that?

Probably not

Now imagine this instead,

Before you walk, I tell you to do the following.

Keep your chin facing forward
Make sure your chest is out
Keep your shoulders down and back
Look eye-level directly ahead of you
Your right hand should synchronize with your left leg
Your left hand should synchronize with your right leg
When your foot hits the pavement, it should not drag the shoe
Walk at a pace where you're not running out of breath

Would you walk better or worse?

Significantly worse.

Why? I'm giving you all the right instructions to walk properly.

Because my instructions are interfering with your brain's natural ability to do something.

If I just trusted that you know how to walk, you would walk fine.

This is exactly what happens with public speaking and conversational skills.

We know our material,
We know the topic inside out,
We've talked about the subject many times before.

But right before the big presentation...
We start giving ourselves instructions like..

"Make sure you look at the boss!"
"Don't forget to mention ABC detail on slide 4"
"Remember, your turn ends on slide 18"
"You better not stutter while you talk!"

This is why our mind is not able to perform basic tasks that it already knows how to do.

This is why we forget our presentation.

This is why we do much better in practice than we do when the time comes.

Don't let your instructions interfere with your intuition.

Practice your presentation enough times till it becomes intuitive to you.

Then, you don't need active instructions to do better. You just need to trust your ability.

In order to do this, you have to remove the thinking mind from the process.

Instead of instructing yourself, shift your focus to something else.

I like to focus all of my attention on my breath prior to a speaking engagement.

You can also focus your attention on a phone on your game,
Watching a comedy skit,
Watching a sport

Anything that keeps your attention long enough to quiet the mind.

I'm so focused on it that I can't think of all the other chitchat in my head.

Then when the time comes to speak, I shift my awareness to my mouth as I speak.

This, again, helps me stay focused on one thing so I'm not giving myself instructions. And this allows me to go slower, and perform better.

Try this out, I hope it helps

When you’re ready to work with my team to become a truly confident speaker you can apply for the Speak like a CEO Program here