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Business English
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Motivation skills
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public speaking
The word "power" is thrown around often with over-hyped hyperbole, as I've over done here through redundancy. Today we have the power tie, power lunch, power business mogul, power actor, power sports coach, and so on. However, a lot of the power is imagined and fleeting, depending on faith in style, winning streaks, financial markets, and other fleeting entities.
What I'm talking about when I say "power" here is the ability to overcome illusion or power conceded by others. Here I am talking about stand-alone power or that which no one can take away. You may lose friends, influence, and riches but the power remains. This, my friend, is the greatest power for it is often earned because you have come to the truth about your strengths and weaknesses and humbled yourself to truths individual and universal that have set you free.
But before we get into the specifics of what I mean above, let's talk about how you can develop this power.
How? The best way possible: public speaking.
OK, I probably lost half of you right there, or after you've picked yourself up off the floor, you'll have realized that you won't be reading any more. You're done. You're off to the fridge, remote, and couch for some comforting.
"Public Speaking?!" you yell with flick of hand, "You're out of your friggen mind!" you conclude.
Before I go on, let me pull a few quotes out of the archives to allude to my upcoming point of importance. Maestro?:
"The richness of the human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome."-- Helen Keller
"The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit."-- Jim Rohn
"The real tragedy of life is not in being limited to one talent, but in the failure to use that one talent."-- Edgar W. Work
"People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents."-- Andrew Carnegie
"To aim at excellence, our reputation, and friends, and all must be ventured; to aim at the average we run no risk and provide little service."-- Oliver Goldsmith
"Excellence can be attained if you Care more than others think is wise, Risk more than others think is safe, Dream more than others think is practical, and Expect more than others think is possible."-- Author Unknown
"Great souls have wills; feeble ones only have wishes."-- Chinese Proverb
"The free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought."-- Leon Blum
"We can have more than we've got because we can become more than we are."-- Jim Rohn
"Every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice. You can choose to be all or you can choose to be less. Why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what all you can do?"-- Jim Rohn
"The ultimate reason for setting goals is to entice you to become the person it takes to achieve them."-- Jim Rohn
OK, do you see where I'm going with this?
Let's summarize: In order to achieve greatness--and we are all called to greatness but few choose to do the work, make the sacrifice--you must look inward to discover strengths or talents and gifts; work them, exploit them; overcome weaknesses to maximize your potential and discover the real you laying deep under the weakness weeds; and strive, strive, strive to your potential to find the self-actualizing joy, power, and greatness therein. It's in all of us but takes some dedication and facing of fear, oftentimes great fear, to overcome and conquer the self.
There, I said it. Yes, to find the "power" I speak of you must conquer the self. When you're in front of people every little weakness will shine. There's no place to run. No place to hide. It's you against the world, and you better have it together brother or sister to not only communicate your message and control the audience but put up with the naysayers and negaters. It takes a person of great strength to stick to his / her guns and not let others sway one away from the intended message. This is why I use public speaking as the best place to train to be that tiger of overpowerrrrrring wowishness.
But let's see what others have to say about all this, like Martha, for example:
"We don't know who we are until we see what we can do."-- Martha Grimes
Or Frank:
"Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?"-- Frank Scully
James:
"Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out."-- James B. Conant
Dale:
"Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The "sure thing" boat never gets far from shore."-- Dale Carnegie
Well, nothing new here. This stuff has been around as long as humans have. Many have just personalized it and taken this sameness into the modern age.
I personally discovered this truth some time ago, that in order to progress, to move, to grow, to shape, form and mold a life of great power, happiness, joy, and contentment, I had to move, get out, waaaaaaay out of my comfort zone to the discovery and overcoming of weaknesses that held me, that hold us all back. We all have them, and the longer we let them linger the stronger they get. Just look at the famous and all those losing sanity, marriages, careers, even lives because they've let the unwanted weeds of weakness fester and pull them under. Reality demands that we attack these weaknesses, but most never come to this realization, albeit to great frustration and lack of fulfillment.
Let me share my story with you to flesh out the points I've made previously.
Growing up, I had many a debilitating weakness. Here's a partial list: depression, hopelessness, addiction, anger, aggression, extreme introversion, shyness, selfishness, lack of direction, focus and so on. I knew at an early age, somewhere in my early twenties, that I needed to get out, get going, and get healing. And the healing begins, contrary to much feel-good pop psychology, by getting out of yourself and not by sitting inside looking in the mirror, licking your wounds through self-comfort. We are much stronger than we imagine and must take on our weaknesses as many of the greats have: Lincoln and his depression and fixation with death; Eleanor Roosevelt her poor self-image and extreme shyness; Einstein and his depression, the opposition of small, closed minds, and his desire to give it all up to go into sales (if you can image that); on and on.
Personally, I knew I had to get out the door, as I said, to overcome my extreme introversion. I did this by moving away from my home in Connecticut, going it alone without family, friends, and support to Boston to do standup comedy. Yes, me, Jeff Brown, who rarely spoke to anyone, never mind a room full of strangers to make them laugh. I was always naturally funny and was able to make my friends and family laugh easily. It's one of my gifts. But to make strangers laugh? That was a tall order.
The first time I performed I stunk up the room. But I kept at it month after month, year after year, to the point where I was making money in Boston and being asked to perform at various rooms, and then I moved to Los Angeles to continue.
Now, years and years later, hundreds of public speaking occasions later (comedy, lectures, seminars, church talks, etc.), I've had people come up to me in recent years saying such things as "YOU are GOOD!" and "That was great! No, amazing!" And when I hear these statements, I have to laugh thinking back to the scared boy who never desired to leave his room, never mind speak in front of tens, hundreds, thousands of people. And not only do it, but do it well, just as good as anyone and better than most.
Now I, through taking on my weaknesses and inner daemons, conquering them and sending them scurrying, having the inner power to take on all comers toe to toe without fear, trepidation, or desire to intimidate, have come to peace with the great joy and power I've nurtured and developed over the years. With a tempered understanding that we are here to encourage and inspire each other, that all our fellow human beings are frail and in need of comfort, I have come full circle and am reaping the benefits of finding my power, the power that lasts longer than an election, economic upswing, or moment of fame and fortune.
And it is this power that I speak of.
May you all find the power that keeps on giving.
Here's to your success.
Lets Talk Institute Pvt ltd : learning center for English speaking Skills, Personality Development, Business English, Accent Training, American Accent, Ielts and Tofel in Mumbai Visit us at : http://www.letstalk.co.in
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