To this day I bristle when I hear the words practice- or think about practicing. When I was in high school I played 3 instruments. Every day I practiced 3 instruments. By the time I got to university I never wanted to ‘practice’ again.
Now, I find myself practicing! Not only do I practice but also I preach it to my clients. Ask someone doing public speaking if they have practiced- most of them will waffle a bit and admit they have not. Ask them what they think would make them more comfortable and, after waffling a bit, they will say practice.
There truly is something to this idea of practice. Any elite athlete will tell you practice is crucial- Lance Armstrong, Abby Wambach, Michael Phelps ratchets up his practice as the Olympics approach. You may have natural talent and practice will move you to the next level.
Practice is the piece that allows you to sail through a speech when everything that can go wrong does. You may have forgotten your outline, the PowerPoint is down, only two lights in the room work and 75 people are crammed into a room built for 50 and if you have practiced that speech you will pull off the greatest speech ever! If you haven’t practiced, you may limp along with something that is, let’s say, less than stellar.
Practice will give you confidence, will allow you to ad lib when it is needed, and will keep you going when you feel like everything else is falling apart.
What happens to my clients that practice? All of a sudden they have a sense of confidence they have never had before, I see it and the audience sees it. Everyone practices- don’t kid yourself into thinking the greatest speakers out there don’t have their own way of practicing. They do.
You could be a brilliant speaker too. It is all up to you.
