The Power of Your Positive Speaking
“You become what you think about” – Earl Nightingale (1921 – 1989)
I was listening to a speaker the other day. His main premise was there is no reason to be positive when there is so much wrong with our world today. According to him, you can’t “just drink some hot chocolate and expect everything to work out.” He, obviously, did not know much about the power of positive thinking. It is so sad to see a person of influence talk this way.
You have great power within you to uplift your audiences to change their thoughts to positive ones and to help them create great lives for themselves.
This article will cover three ways the power of your positive speaking can help others to improve their lives – (1) be a model of positiveness when you are speaking, (2) give your audiences the practical actions to increase their positive attitude, and (3) “recharge your batteries” by reading the great positive thinking books to maintain your positive attitude.
Be a Model of Positiveness
People come to hear you speak to be uplifted, learn something new, and be entertained. Yes, great speaking is entertaining also. Your audiences want to feel better about themselves when they leave your presentations than they felt when they entered the presentation venue.
The best way to be a positive role model is to read books that inspire you (more on this later), talk to people who encourage you to improve, and watch videos that can teach you how to transform your presentations.
I think you already know things don’t always go the way you want them to at your presentations. I was giving a presentation to 60 people a few weeks ago in a hall and the lapel microphone would not work. As a consequence, I had to project more and, a few times I had to ask the last row of the audience whether they could hear me. By the way, every speaker, whether you have a booming voice or not should be speaking into a microphone. If you don’t use a microphone, you will not have a voice the next day. The audience will be glad you did use a microphone.
When things don’t turn out exactly right at your presentations, shrug it off and remain positive. Remember you are the model. The best way to remain positive is to have backup plans for when the lapel microphone doesn’t work, the projector used for your presentation does not project, and the DVD player with that vital video doesn’t function correctly.
It is OK to give theories about positive thinking audiences, but what will help your audiences more is to give them practical actions they can do to increase their positive attitude.
Give Your Audiences Practical Positive Actions
Have you ever attended a presentation and wondered afterward as to how you can use the information in the presentation to better the lives of your audience? Always, always, always have a call to action on the part of your audience at the end of your presentation.
The tools I am about to give you come from The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (1952), Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (1937), and The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David J. Schwartz (1959); three books that have made a huge difference in my life. In the next section, I give you a glimpse into these self-development classics. However, for now, let’s look at three success actions you can give to your audiences to increase their positive attitude.
Thoughts Follow Actions. I think you will agree that your actions follow your thoughts. However, have you ever considered that your thoughts can also follow your actions.
So how can this help you give increasingly better presentations. For one thing, if you are not feeling confident about your presentation, acting confident will actually begin to increase your confidence. It sounds hokey, but it is true.
If you are feeling disorganized in your presentation, use the action of rearranging your presentation outline to better organize your presentation to decrease your presentation’s disorganization.
If you are fearful about giving your presentation, use the action of seeking more information about your audience. This will create the thought that your presentation is highly relevant to your audience and will increase your positive attitude.
The Power of Persistence. My son Frankie is an Eagle Scout. I am very proud of him. At his Eagle Scout Court of Honor (ceremony conferring the Eagle Scout rank in Boy Scouts) a number of years ago, I delivered a presentation about persistence, his persistence specifically that directly contributed to his becoming an Eagle Scout. In that presentation I quoted President Calvin Coolidge which I think sums up completely why persistence is an absolutely essential ingredient to your success:
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – President Calvin Coolidge (1872 – 1933)
Goals Turn Your Dreams into Your Reality. Look around your home, your neighborhood and your world. Have you ever thought whatever you see was once not there? Everything you see started with a thought in someone’s mind – everything! Everything includes famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, and not so famous things like your car, the local supermarket, and the color you painted your daughters room. All these realities started with a single thought. Goals are what is responsible for accomplishing them.
Around every Wednesday, my wife, Elaine, and I start putting together a list of tasks to accomplish over the following weekend. This list contains our goals for the weekend – what we want to achieve in the two days off from work. A funny thing though. When the list had 20 things on it, few of the goals were accomplished. We found out that if the list had only three goals, the absolutes we needed to get done always were. So keep the list of goals you are working on short whether that is 3 or 5 goals. It is amazing, but you will get all of them done.
“Recharge Your Batteries”
Like you, I have had great and not so great periods in my life. We all need some help, every once in a while, to bring us up when we are down. If you are not positive when you are speaking to your audiences, I guarantee your presentation will fall flat. So it is important to “recharge your batteries” so you can be the most positive you can be.
Because you are a speaker, I bet you are a reader also. There are three incredible books that have been and still are a great positive influence on my life, The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (1952), Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (1937), and The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David J. Schwartz (1959).
As you can see, the newest book of the three is 60 years old which, hopefully, tells you that wisdom does not become irrelevant with age.
The Power of Positive Thinking, by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale was a lifeline for me when I needed it. It has chapters entitled, “Believe in Yourself,” How to Create Your Own Happiness,” and “Expect the Best and Get It.” To quote the back cover of the book, it is “a practical, direct-action, personal-improvement manual.” If you think you have reached your plateau of achievement, read this book and you will realize that plateau is just your “base camp” and the summit of your achievement is still in your future. Read this book and tear down your “internal prisons” to achieve your dreams!
Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill is a classic of self-development and success. It started becoming a reality a few years into the 20 th Century when Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate, commissioned Napoleon Hill, at the time a journalist, to chronicle the common success traits of men of great wealth and achievement at the time such as Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell and John D. Rockefeller.
Mr. Hill talks of desire as being “the starting point of all achievement, persistence as “an essential factor in the procedure of transmuting desire into its monetary equivalent, and the power of the mastermind being the “coordinating of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.”
The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David J. Schwartz is another classic of self-development and success. From the back cover of the book, “Dr. Schwartz proves that you don’t need to be an intellectual or have innate talent to attain great success and satisfaction – but you do need to learn and understand the habit of thinking and behaving in ways that will get you there.” Chapters include, “Believe You Can Succeed and You Will;” “Cure Yourself of Excusitis, the Failure Disease;” and “You Are What You Think You Are.”
Read these books, internalize them, put their contents to work in your life and you and others will be amazed at the positive difference it will make in your life and the lives of your audiences?
So, the three ways the power of your positive speaking can help others to improve their lives are (1) be a model of positiveness when you are speaking, (2) give your audiences the practical actions to increase their positive attitude, and (3) “recharge your batteries” by reading the great positive thinking books to maintain your positive attitude.
So, go forth, be inspiring to your audiences, and spread your positive speaking to the world!
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by a altering their attitudes of mind.” – William James (1842 – 1910)
Looking for professional services to help you significantly increase your influence with your audiences? Contact DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI) at info@speakleadandsucceed.com or (703) 815-1324