Powerful Presentations. Jacques Waisvisz
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feedback to our conscious mind instead of negative feedback? Can we reprogram positive attitude changes towards any activity or behaviour we would like to learn and thus change our self-esteem from negative to positive, thereby creating more success in our daily life?” The answer is yes!
Even though we have created a negative balance in our belief system about one or more of our talents, abilities or behaviours, we should realize that many of these negative thoughts are not based on truth. This negative balance is based on negative impressions we have received over the years from comments by other people and by “self-talk”. We have created a ‘false self’.
An interesting series of studies were conducted by Yale University to examine the types of messages being sent out to adolescents by the average North American family. In a large sample testing, over a seven-day period, the messages were 32 positive, and over 431 negative. So much for the comments you receive from other people. Are you going to build the rest of your life on those negative comments? I hope not.
And what of “self-talk”? We talk to ourselves all the time. Very often it goes something like this: “I am so stupid! How could I do something so silly! I am so disorganized!” and on and on it goes. If I were to talk to my friends the way some people talk to themselves, I would not have any friends left! Are you going to build the rest of your life on those negative comments? I hope not.
The subconscious mind can be influenced, not by willpower as some people maintain, but by supplanting, replacing and simply overriding the false impressions in our belief system with positive beliefs about ourselves. This will allow our ‘true self’ to surface.
Before we discuss the ways we can change our belief system, we must understand and remember that our subconscious mind constantly records, files and feeds back information. Remember it is the hard disk, not the operating system. It does not judge or make decisions. It also does not understand the difference between real and imagined and it memorizes best when processing emotionally-charged information, repeatedly, over an extended period of time.
MENTAL RE-PROGRAMMING - Positive Mental Attitude
To help you in your quest to overcome your fear of speaking in public in particular and to achieve more success in your life in general, I have included the following from a book called “ACHIEVE”. The author is Denis L. Cauvier, a professional speaker and seminar leader who at one time vowed never to try public speaking again. He writes:
“I had to re-program my subconscious mind to be comfortable with myself while speaking in front of an audience, and to actually enjoy the process. How I did this was by using a tool called Positive Affirmation Statements which, in reality, is nothing more than giving yourself a pep talk. We all talk to ourselves and give ourselves guidance as to how well we expect to perform in a given activity.
I decided to change the language of my self-talk to something more positive. Instead of repeating to myself on a subconscious level, “I am a lousy public speaker”, I changed my self-talk to “I am a great public speaker now.” By saying this over and over, I was actually able to recondition or program my subconscious mind to become comfortable with the idea of being a good speaker.
I also linked positive emotions to public speaking. When you discuss public speaking with the average person, they immediately link up all sorts of personal pain associated with the concept.
The pain of embarrassment, failure, disappointment, and maybe even ridicule come to mind. It’s this pain that prevents them from moving forward and conquering the fear of public speaking.
In my case, I decided to think of something that provided me with total pleasure: downhill skiing. I love skiing so much that just saying downhill skiing triggers a series of positive emotions within me. I took out my favourite skiing poster, hung it in my office, and then said to myself: “Public speaking - I love it” then stared at the poster; Public speaking - I love it” then stared at the poster again.
As soon as I would say “public speaking”, a little bit of negative emotion would creep in; then I would stare at the picture of the skier and, because a picture is stronger than words, all the positive emotions associated with skiing transferred into my self-concept associated with public speaking. I was finding it very difficult to feel fearful and nervous about public speaking while I was associating it with the pleasure of skiing.
I continued to repeat the exercise. Two days later, I was walking down the street and I said to myself: “ public speaking”, and my mind automatically kicked in the picture of the skier; I was now beginning to associate public speaking with all the positive feelings associated with skiing.
I was conditioning my mind to link pleasure, not pain, with public speaking... and was ultimately very successful. It’s the combination of the physical - writing a good speech; emotional - linking constant pleasure to public speaking (or whatever activity or behaviour you’re working on); and mental re-programming the subconscious mind, which will result in conquering fears.”
MENTAL REPROGRAMMING - Visualization
Another way mentally to prepare yourself for public speaking is to visualize yourself successfully delivering your speech. People in sports use positive imaging or visualization all the time. They imagine vividly how if feels to see the golf ball plop in the hole, they hear the sound in their mind, they hear the roar of approval of the crowd, they taste the sweat of concentration in their mouth.
You can do the same. Imagine yourself behind the lectern, imagine people in the audience smiling at you, imagine you hear them laughing at your jokes, imagine the audience giving you a standing ovation at the end of your speech.
Exaggerate and emotionalize your expectations, live the action in your mind....do this for at least 30 seconds, many times a day for an extended period of time, and you’ll be surprised at the positive results your positive imagination can bring to you. Why does this work? Visualization will allow your subconscious mind to record imagined success stories about you, in any chosen activity or behaviour. Your belief system will file these imagined success stories as if they were real.
Remember, the subconscious mind does not know the difference between real and imagined.
Thus the feedback to your conscious mind, when you think about an activity, will become positive rather than negative. Your previously stored negative information is overpowered by positive thoughts.
Your belief system is changing from negative to positive and, therefore, your attitude towards any chosen new behaviour or activity, such as public speaking, will become positive rather than negative.
It will take some time, (21 days at least) to re-program your subconscious mind. Psychologist generally agree that a particular behaviour will likely become a habit if performed for a minimum of 21 consecutive days. It takes at least 21 days to get used to a new home, so give your mind some time to get used to a new way of thinking. During this time don’t allow your negative imagination, your false self to take over. Don’t allow your mind to get into the “what if” mode. You will see positive results if you persist in the reprogramming techniques.
The ideas shared in this chapter are not new, but they are summarized here, so that you can take advantage of them in your pursuit of becoming a more confident public speaker.
YOU, TOO, CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
It is fortunate that the philosophy of learning has changed for the better. Teachers who ridicule students in front of their peers are no longer tolerated. Teachers still make students get up in front of the class to give individual presentations or to participate in group presentations, but today they encourage students rather than ridicule them. Only in this way will the learning process of speaking in front of a group of people become a positive rather than a negative experience.
I sincerely