Found the above quote at some random blogger’s site. Was bored and decided to spice it up with some (amaturish) designer’s flair and post it here, with well justified reasons of course. Most people are wayyyyyyy too serious when they give their speeches on stage.

They shake minutes before they go up on stage, imagining the worst possible scenario that could happen to them. They curse when they miss a line or two from their script that was written and re-written umpteen times. They frow when the audience remained grim-faced at the supposedly funny punchlines and panic when the audience laughed at lines that weren’t supposed to be funny. They get upset (and insulted) when they notice one of their audience sleeping even though the rest of them are fully engaged. They turn a deaf ear to all compliments directed to them and yet take to heart the one or two negative remarks… and then swear never to speak again since they suck big time.

My advice to them - don’t take (your speech) too seriously… it isn’t permanent. Failure is a fabulous teacher as long as you are willing to listen! Problem is most people are so caught up with their emotions of meeting Failure that very often they miss the whole lesson altogether. So take my advice, give yourself the permission to fail. Fail all you want AS LONG AS you learn from it!

Also, it doesn’t hurt to have fun while speaking. When you have fun, you feel relaxed. When you feel relaxed, your audience take the cue and become relaxed too, which makes you feel even more relaxed. (I assume you want to feel relaxed while giving your speech. Ignore this is you prefer to feel anxious, agitated and apprehensive.)

Case in point: When you wrote and rehearsed your speech, you were at a relaxed state. In fact, you were also inspired to write your speech when you were at a relaxed state. Hence isn’t it only in your relaxed state that you can access and channel the emotions to your audience?

Two lessons to take note:

1. Give yourself the permission to fail as long as you learn from it
2. Have fun at your speech

Of course, don’t forget the bigger (and aesthetically looking) lesson. See below –>

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