I Had a Eureka Moment Tonight

It was at public speaking class. Public speaking class is where they make you stand up every week and deliver a speech that you're suppose to prepare over the week. Except in true high school style everyone just pushes something out the night before. And most of these people are mid-level executive types at the higher end of the corporation chain. God, nothing defines humanity like procrastination.

Anyway: seeing that public speaking is mainly about confidence and people are usually afraid of speaking mainly because they're nervous, this class - from what I've deduced - exists primarily to sugar coat a couple of recommendations each week in a giant tablespoon of compliments and praise about how good a speech was even if it was completely terrible. My theory is that two months of reinforcing to people that their public speaking is good will inevitably give them false confidence, which will lead to less nervousness. So it's just a big placebo to help them up to the next rung on the corporate ladder. Boring. Fake it til you make it jazz.

Those who know me would know that, particularly in front of a group, I don't lack the confidence to try and lasso everyone's attention and keep it with average-to-good tales and impromptu comedy stylings. So I don't really need feel goodisms about my speaking. I need cold hard coaching to turn me into the kind of powerful, dynamic motivator that can command a room.

Every week I would turn up, make a speech and despite in my head thinking I had the ability to appear as a powerful, collected speaker. But after each speech I always felt blunter than I should be. After tonight's effort I felt the same way. Shortly after I returned to the podium to hash a few points of evaluation of another speaker, mainly about improving his vocal variety and everything clicked. Faking it 'til you make it needs to be performed, or faked, in gross of what you're actually trying to make! So when I went up to demonstrate how he should have yelled here, or been more Irish there, I was bellowing. I was t'beshure-ing like a leprechaun. The result: the inevitable numbing of my public appearance dimmed everything down to a dynamic, powerful presentation that made me surge with confidence. After I finished and sat down I realised that this is how you I should be communicating with everyone. I need to be triple coated with confidence and strength so that any awkwardness or lack of clarity is sandblasted away.

Obviously I'm not a expert at this yet, and my technique still needs honing, but I feel now that I'm in a new echelon of communicating. I also feel like I shouldn't have yelled so enthusiastically at the Indian guy in the Caltex on the way home when I bought my chocolate milk. Nevertheless, I'm practicing at new difficulty level.