Take the time

The psychologist, M. Scott Peck, in his inspirational bestseller, “The Road Less Traveled”, tells the story of a neighbor who was a mechanical whiz. When Peck lamented the fact that he, himself had no mechanical aptitude, the neighbor shot back, “That’s because you don’t take the time.”

Most speakers don’t take the time either. They don’t take the time to work out exactly what it is that they are trying to say. They may prepare diligently, spend hours writing their speech, polishing the text till it positively glows. They may spend hours practicing alone in front of the mirror or in front of colleagues. And in the end, they might give a smooth and professional delivery that looks to all like a satisfactory performance.

You can’t fault their effort, but too often it was all for nothing, because they didn’t sit down, before they fired up the word processor, and think about what they were trying to achieve. It’s the most neglected part of most presentations, and often the most difficult and painful.

Take the time to think about what, specifically, you want to happen as a result of this presentation or speech. What do you want your audience to hear and remember? What do you want them to think or feel? What do you want them to do, as a result of listening to you?

Then, start thinking about how you are going to achieve it.