Are you trying to be perfect? Is your goal to
give "the" perfect presentation with
no mistakes that leaves everyone in your audience
thrilled and begging for more? And do you get
un-usefully upset with yourself if something goes
wrong? If you forget to say something or can't
answer a question from the audience?
If this sounds familiar, you may actually be
doing the exact opposite to what you need to do
in order to perform at your best.
It's one of life's common paradoxes that the
harder we try to do something, the less likely
we are to achieve it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you'll succeed
without any effort. To begin with, our performance
improves with effort. But at a certain point the
law of diminishing returns kicks in and our rate
of improvement reduces, even though we're applying
more effort. But wait - there's more. We try even
harder and then we reach a point where the harder
we try, the worse we do.
In public speaking this commonly shows up shows
up as:
- excessive time spent researching a topic or
rehearsing the speech
- creating a huge Powerpoint presentation which
puts the audience to sleep
- instead of rehearsing an energetic presentation
- various unpleasant changes in our body such
as shakes, tremors, stiffness and a
- dry mouth loss of concentration, speech flow
and memory.
Sound familiar? Here are four tips for getting
out of the "Perfect Presentation" trap:
- Accept the paradox that at a certain point,
the more you try to go forward the more you
go backwards
- Listen to others - if they say you're doing
a good job then maybe you are
- Notice whether your feelings and behaviours
are supportive or sabotaging. They're your best
guide to whether you're demanding too much of
yourself.
- Pull back - let go of the need to be perfect
and realise that this attitude will help you
to be better.
We have to face facts - we are not perfect. We
are human and humans have faults and make mistakes.
We're more likely to succeed in our endeavours
if we accept this fact rather than rail against
it.
