Here are some frequently asked questions and answers on the subject of improving your motivational speaking techniques.
These come from someone with over 30 years' experience in commerce and industry and with extensive knowledge of motivational speaking and training.
What is the most important aspect of successful motivational speaking?
The outcome.
If you have influenced your audience in your intended direction and persuaded them to change their behaviours or adopt new ones, you will have succeeded.
Feedback of the "very entertaining speech" variety is not, in itself, a measure of success unless it's accompanied by positive action as a result.
What's the most important personal characteristic required for success?
There isn't one but three:
- Conviction - if you clearly don't 100% believe your message then why should you expect others to? This is closely linked to personal confidence of course.
- Knowledge - conviction alone is useless if your audience perceives (rightly or wrongly) that you don't really know what you're talking about.
- Pertinence - you must be speaking on a subject that is relevant to the audience. If it isn't, you won't change their behaviours even if they think it was a great and interesting speech.
You can't separate these three things.Isn't technique important?
Yes, very much so. You can learn lots about team building and motivational speaking techniques from experts in the field out there.
However, good technique alone can't compensate for a lack of the above three things.
Is motivational speaking always effective?
Yes when done properly but there has to be a degree of common sense applied.
One aspect of that is audience intelligence gathering. You need to know that your audience is at least potentially receptive to your message.
To give a crude example, you can address a forum of vegetarians all you like and using the best techniques but you're not going to motivate them, to any significant degree, to change to a meat-based diet.
To put it another way, don't expect motivational speaking techniques to overcome a "mission impossible" objective for your dialogue.
Is this technique only applicable at formal sessions?
No, motivational speaking can and should be applied in many casual and informal environments. It's most certainly not reserved for big speeches and presentations.
For example, it's an excellent technique for team managers and leaders to master. If you can't motivate your team constantly by your communications and demonstrated behaviours, then you're lacking a key skill required for leadership success.
Why have you mentioned personal behaviour examples?
Essentially, your audience (whether formal or workday colleagues) will usually spot immediately that you're saying one thing and doing another.
This has been known about since the beginning of time and is often summarised by the old saying "practice what you preach". We can all think of examples from politics where public figures have been arguing that we should all do "XYZ" when events have shown them to be doing something quite different.
So, the join between the positions you adopt with motivational speaking and your own behaviours must be totally seamless if you're to avoid being seen as a hypocrite.
The WA Institute of Martial Arts is one of the most professional and innovative martial arts centre in WA. One of our specialist areas involves helping people develop the techniques required for motivational speaking - notably including the self-confidence that requires.
Photo by Marcos Luiz Photograph on Unsplash
You are meant to live a life of purpose. However, too often we fall into the trap of living a life to please someone else and not out of a sense of who we are as individuals. We are told by society and those around us what is an appropriate way to live. Many times this goes against what our spirit is trying to say to us, but we squash that and do as we are told. Because of this, we are unfulfilled by life and lose our passion for life.
Living without purpose is not how we were meant to live. We are supposed to live a life of passion and meaning. Our life should express who we are as individuals. It should inspire us and add something to the world around us. To do this, we need to follow our purpose and create the life of our dreams. We are worthy of such a life, no matter what we may think.
For me, I followed the path that I thought others wanted for me. I pursued a post-graduate degree. I followed a way that I thought would bring me happiness and fulfillment. I got a job in the corporate world and made excellent money, but I found myself unfulfilled and uninspired. When I found myself in transition, I couldn't find another good paying job. I floundered around. All I could discover were low paying, unfulfilling jobs for me. They were perfectly good jobs. However, they weren't for me. Friends and family members were telling me I needed to go to work. I needed a "normal" job to earn money. The problem was my spirit was not telling me to go this route. However, it took me a long time to listen to it. I finally realized that my soul was screaming at me that it would die if I got another corporate job. It took me a long time to listen and discover my purpose.
Does this sound familiar? Do you believe that you do not have a purpose? Everyone has a purpose. You can find it if you just listen to what your spirit is telling you. Let us look at the top three ways that you can find your life purpose.
1) Notice when you feel most alive. - As you go through your day, notice those moments when you are feeling most alive. What is happening at those moments? What are you doing? What are you thinking? It is in those moments that your spirit is telling you what your path is.
"Notice when your heart leaps up in joyous exuberance... In these moments the voice of your spirit is speaking directly to you." - Justine Willis Toms
As you start noticing those moments, you will begin to see a pattern. Look at the trends that you see and find out what they are telling you. It is giving you the path for you to walk. Are you listening?
2) Follow your passion - What are you passionate about? What is it that if you don't do it that day, at night you feel your day was not a success? Those things that we are passionate about giving us a glimpse of what motivates us, and lead us to our purpose.
"If you can't figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you into your purpose." - Bishop T. D. Jakes
Your passion opens up the doorway to your purpose. By paying attention to what you're passionate about, you'll be able to uncover what inspires you. This leads you to your purpose.
3) Trust yourself - You are enough! You are worthy! Do you believe these statements? Many times we fall into the habit that other people know best. That the experts are someone else; our parent, our pastor, our teachers, someone other than ourselves. But for our life, we are the experts. We know what is best for us. Pay attention to what you feel, what you think.
"If your life is cloudy and you find yourself far, far off course, you may have to go on faith for a while, but eventually you'll learn that every time you trust your internal navigation system, you end up closer to your right life." - Martha Beck
We allow our heads to rule our hearts. The truth is we need to use our heads to follow our heart because our heart knows where we need to go and what path we need to follow. Trust yourself and that small voice that is telling to step out, to follow a different direction, as it will lead you to your right life.
By paying attention to these as any of these three things come up in your life, you'll be able to hone into your life purpose. You'll be able to figure out what will enable you to live a fulfilling, inspired life. And when you're living life on purpose, you are a higher value to yourself, your family, and to the world. Isn't that worth living your purpose?
Do you want to discover your life purpose and live your life to the fullest?
To be able to do this, you'll need to explore who you are and what makes you tick. Then you will need to get clear on what you want, set goals and achieve them. Go to http://www.lojope.com to find tools, articles, and the support you need.
The quickest way to achieve your goals is not to attempt them by yourself. Even if you don't hire me as your coach, hire a coach, all the high achievers do it. If you don't hire a coach, at least work with a trusted friend as the path doesn't have to be long and arduous, especially if you have someone along for the ride.
From Trent Fisher - Where Extraordinary Begins - Working to transform the world a person at a time.
Memory is everything; without our memory we have nothing. We must have an ability to recall information in order to learn and develop. Today brain research has uncovered fascinating discoveries relating to memory, yet we have only just begun to understand this mystery of the mind.
Most researchers focus on the brain and how the different parts are related to memory. This understanding is very important if we are ever going to truly understand ourselves. I find neuroscience to be a fascinating subject that has helped shape my understanding of the human condition however I don't want to look at the brain in regards to memory.
I instead want to focus on the mind and how it utilizes information in regards to our memory. I want to share my theory on how the two different minds (conscious and subconscious) work together to provide us with the ability of recall.
Most people know about short and long-term memory; and how these two systems work together to give us the ability of recall. I believe there is a third type of memory that I call temporary memory that helps fill in the gap between short and long-term memory. I want to go over each of the three types, show you how they work, and explain how the two minds are related.
Before we can remember something we must first take in the information to be stored. Our DNA does contain some information but for this topic I will be focused on information we have obtained from outside sources; meaning our five senses.
Pivotal Resource Centre Topic MEMORY
Everything we experience in life is the result of information coming in through our five senses. Without these senses we would have no experience of the world or have any information to be processed into memory. This incoming information is first sent to the subconscious mind.
The reason the subconscious gets the information first is because it's the survival mind and is much faster at processing information. We need it this way to allow us to react to events that involve an immediate threat to us such as being attacked or touching a hot stove.
After the subconscious mind determines if any action is needed or not; it sends a small amount of the information to the conscious mind were it becomes what we call our conscious awareness. We are only aware of a small part of what is going on around us. This is why two people can have the same experience yet have two different views of what happened.
The thing to keep in mind is just because the information is not consciously known doesn't mean it's lost. This information is still sitting there inside your head just waiting to be used. At the same time this information is not yet a part of your long-term memory. All this incoming information is stored in what I call temporary memory and is controlled by the subconscious mind.
If information is stored in temporary memory; how do we get it to become long-term memory? My theory is the subconscious mind processes this information and converts it to long-term memory when we sleep, specifically REM sleep. To me this is one of the reasons we have dreams. Dreams are nothing more than us becoming consciously aware of temporary memory being converted to long-term memory.
One way the subconscious processes information to be converted to long-term memory is by using emotional "tags". This means if an event has caused us to feel a strong emotion it gets linked to that emotion. When this information is converted to long-term memory it is arranged in such a way as to be easy to recall. In other words the more emotion involved the more the memory will be put at the "front of the line" and information with no emotions will be move to the back. This makes it easier to recall emotional events which are important when it comes to survival. This is why the subconscious is in control of this system.
Just because the conscious mind does not have direct control over this information, it can access it through a process of requesting information from the subconscious. When the conscious mind requests information the subconscious first looks in this temporary memory because it is smaller, easier to process, and most likely to be more relevant. If it can't find it in temporary memory then it will expand the search to long-term memory which can take longer to find because of the massive size of long-term memory.
That's why you can be trying to think of something and then forget about it, but later the answer will just pop into your head for no reason. Your subconscious continues to search without any conscious awareness of what is going on.
The subconscious also uses the information in temporary memory to influence our decisions and actions. This influence is the basis of subliminal programing and can be very powerful if used correctly. Subliminal programing doesn't turn people into walking zombies but can have a real effect on a person's conscious thought process.
As you can see the subconscious mind is very involved with our memory by working with both temporary and long-term memory. The concept of using temporary memory to hold information before being converted to long-term memory is a wonderful system that allows us to utilize information as its being taken in. The problem is temporary memory is a fixed size and this causes problems.
Have you noticed how you get mentally tired if you don't get proper sleep? A lack of sleep causes the temporary memory to become full which can lead to issues with being able to recall the information we want. Sleep is so important in maintaining a strong memory.
Pivotal Resource Centre Topic SLEEP
Lack of sleep is not the only thing that can cause issues with temporary memory; there is also what environment we find ourselves in.
I skipped over one of the steps in how information is processed because I felt it was too early in the flow of this article. When the subconscious first receives information it looks for any copies of that information in our long-term memory. If it finds an exact copy it will simply reinforce the long-term memory instead of sending it to temporary memory.
This is why we have better recall of something if we can look at the information from different angels or give the information more details. These things cause more copies of the information to be put into temporary memory that will then be converted to long-term memory. If all we do is look at something one way we only reinforce a single long-term memory; and memory is all about the number of links we create. So how is our environment involved in memory?
When you are in an environment you are familiar with you take in more "copy" information because you already have knowledge about what is around you; which causes less information to be stored in your temporary memory. When you are in an unfamiliar environment your temporary memory will fill more rapidly causing you to become mentally fatigued. This is why you feel mentally tired when on vacation or when trying to learn something new.
The final piece of this memory puzzle is of course short-term memory. The conscious mind uses short-term memory to process information it receives. Because of the highly analytically nature of the conscious mind it can only keep track of a very small amount of information. Short-term memory is the only form of memory that is controlled by the conscious mind.
If all of this seems confusing or overwhelming let me offer you a metaphor on how all this works that will make it easier to understand.
Your mind is like an office. Information comes in and first goes to the inbox (temporary memory). From there some of the paper work gets move from the inbox to the desk top (short-term memory).
With any desk top there is very limited space so you must work on just a couple of things at a time. You can move papers back and forth from the desk top to the inbox but can only work with a few things at a time.
Just as with temporary memory an inbox can only hold so much before it becomes a disorganized mess. To keep the inbox from getting too full papers are moved to a filing cabinet (long-term memory). From time to time we do move papers from the filing cabinet to the desk top as we need them (consciously becoming aware of something from long-term memory). However it can be hard and time-consuming in finding just what we are looking for.
I hope this metaphor helps with understanding how the three parts of memory work together to give us this amazing ability of recall. Memory is still a mystery yet we are moving in the right direction.
ARTICLE AUTHOR: Jeremy T. Jordan is a dynamic Speaker and Personal Life Coach that specializes in the areas of Success, Happiness, and Fulfillment. He is the founder of Why U Can Life Management; a personal development system designed to empower people with the knowledge and skills of self-mastery. For more information on Jeremy T. Jordan or the Why U Can Life Management System go to his website http://www.whyucanlifemanagement.com
1. Relax! - Give yourself time to unwind and breathe every once in a while. Cuddle up with your lover or pet and enjoy a relaxing cup of tea or watch a romantic comedy.
2. Create Something - Take time to write in your journal or spend your spare time venting about your experiences. If you're artistic, some of the best ways to relieve stress involve writing! Pick up your oil paints or pastels and turn your frustration into beautiful flowers or a exotic landscape. The possibilities are endless!
3. Go for a Walk - Exercise is one of the best ways people can relieve stress and negative energy. Next time you're angry or upset go for a walk in your favorite park or spend some time getting fresh air. Go hiking or ride your bike on some trails with your sweetheart. The possibilities are endless.
4. Get a Psychic Reading! - Talking out your issues and getting psychic insight is an awesome way to relieve stress. When I get upset, I talk to my favorite psychics on the line for clarity and compassion regarding my situation. It's great to talk out your issues and CP's psychics are available 24/7 to relieve some of the stress.
5. Visualize Happiness - Thinking about things in your life that you appreciate and enjoy can make the stress melt away. Think about creating your favorite food for dinner one night out of the week or change your negative energy into positive, by creating a positive experience for yourself. As a kid growing up we would thank God before bed for what we we're thankful for. I still do this on a daily basis and appreciate everything I have and love. If you take a good look at your life you can realize how special it really is.
6. Clean! - A healthy, happy, clean home is known to draw positivity, just like a dirty one can draw negativity. If you regularly clean and cleanse your home it's a great way to relieve stress and reap the benefits of a clean home in the process. Imagine the negativity and stress leaving your body and your home floating far away.
7. Listen to music - If you listen to your favorite music and sing along, you can reduce your stress level by having fun and enjoying your favorite tunes.
8. See what's new in the news - When you're thinking about other people's lives and concentrating on what's new in the press and in the news, it keeps you informed and in tune with your environment. If you can connect with your favorite celebs and keep updated on the latest gossip, you'll be thinking less about personal mishaps.
9. Laugh it off - Laughing is one of the greatest and easiest ways to reduce stress--download your favorite comic relief from iTunes, check out what's new with Comedy Central. South Park is always good for a laugh, I relax and watch every week religiously with my husband. Try to jump in Red's or another funny psychic's callback, personally I love psychics that can provide comic relief when explaining your life's stresses and there are a ton of them on CP. Stay connected and in tune with friends and family, since conversation is a great way to provoke a laugh. 🙂
10. Get a pet!! - Working with animal shelters, as an equestrian, or even cuddling up on the couch with your animal is a great way to relieve stress. I've found horseback riding is great exercise, it's relaxing and it's a great way to enhance your psychic ability. Since you're connecting with an animal on a spiritual level and working as a team to accomplish something you're enhancing your Empathy and Clairvoyant abilities naturally. It's scientifically proven, petting an animal reduces stress and promotes healing and happiness in a person's life.
This article was Posted by Jen (Psychic Corrine) in Mind, Body & Spirit
