This will be short & sweet, but I wanted to get a blog going on this site.The impetus is the public speaking presentation I gave today, which has me wanting to re-commit to my efforts to continuing to improve my own public speaking skills. One of the many benefits of the presentation today was getting a little further over the hump of being well-prepared. Procrastination & lack of rehearsal tend to be my biggest personal challenges where public speaking is concerned, and I really wanted to prove to myself that the procrastination-panic-bomb cycle is NOT inevitable. I've been a member of Toastmasters for a couple of years, but I've only given about 4-5 speeches so far and had been keeping my involvement on the back-burner. I learned a great many positive lessons while preparing for the presentation, but going through the process of moving past the fear a little more and delivering to the best of my ability based on how much I had prepared (rather than focusing on how much more I wanted to or could have if I'd started earlier) was probably the biggest benefit. I also think that giving a speech on public speaking to peers in your profession is a *great* way to learn. Even though I'm in Toastmasters, I hadn't previously done much reading on "how to prepare for a speech," and I found so much helpful information in the books & websites I consulted.
I owe a great big thanks to the SEFLIN Reference Committee and it's chair (Alyse Ergood) for inviting me to speak!
Here's a link I mentioned & said I'd post, on Choosing Your Topic.
Next Time: Further information & links, related to some of the questions asked & answered after the talk.
I owe a great big thanks to the SEFLIN Reference Committee and it's chair (Alyse Ergood) for inviting me to speak!
Here's a link I mentioned & said I'd post, on Choosing Your Topic.
Next Time: Further information & links, related to some of the questions asked & answered after the talk.