By Sharon Lechter, International Speaker & Author “Rich Dad Poor Dad”
As speakers, we have the opportunity to motivate individuals, give inspiration and spread messages of hope to hundreds, sometimes thousands. We also have a responsibility to ‘serve’ those individuals and make sure we have added value to their lives. Instead of thinking of ourselves as speakers, let’s acknowledge that we are truly entrepreneurs. To be truly successful we need to solve a problem or serve a need for our audience.
Sometimes it is easy to lose focus and passion, especially when our message becomes repetitive, we hear negative feedback or we spend less
time on speaking and more time on administrative tasks. Keeping that enthusiasm level high is essential in our line of work. The wisdom
that Napoleon Hill shared in “Outwitting the Devil” provides insights into how to overcome those negative obstacles and self-limiting beliefs that may be standing in our way to reaching the success we deserve.
These seven tips will help us become better speakers and create a better and more lasting impact on our audiences.
1. Definiteness of Purpose- Reconnect with your purpose and work each day in a passionate way to strengthen your mission. By keeping the overall goal in mind – whether it is helping small business owners or spreading the word about inspirational stories — the little obstacles and stresses will be easier to get through.
2. Mastery Over Self- The person who is not a master of himself can never be a master of others. As a speaker, it is important to practice self discipline in all walks of life and maintain a healthy emotional and mental state. This means staying away from habits that cause you to procrastinate or drift, like smoking , excessive drinking or generally unhealthy living.
3. Learning from Adversity- Everyone will be faced with adversity, but the trick is to learn and grow from those obstacles. Know the difference between temporary defeat and failure. Success usually is but one short step beyond the point of where one quits fighting.
4. Controlling Environmental Influences- Stay away from negative environments and interject positive, friendly and harmonious thoughts
into your daily life. Not only align yourself with positive associations, partnerships and personal relationships, but seek out helpful advice from experts in your industry.
5. Time- Give permanency to positive, rather than negative-thought developing habits. Instead of spending time worrying or fearing failure, use that time to gain additional insight into your industry, meet new people and think through future goals.
6. Harmony- Act with definiteness of purpose to become the dominating influence in your own mental, spiritual and physical environment.
7. Caution- Think through your plan before you act. As passionate people, we tend to get excited about new opportunities and fail to outline a game plan that will strengthen our businesses. You will never regret spending the time to mull your opportunities over and the extra work will pay off in the end.
By mastering these seven steps, we can conquer any obstacle that may be getting in our way or holding us back from maximizing the impact we have as speakers. Thank you for adding value to the lives of your audiences.
Sharon Lechter is an international motivational speaker and is the annotator for Napoleon Hill’s “Outwitting the Devil,” which was released in June 2011 and is available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble nationwide. This motivational and success book outlines the factors that keep each of us from achieving our true purpose and offers seven principles to overcome fear and outwit the devil. Lechter is also the co-author of bestseller “Three Feet from Gold” and co-author of the international bestseller “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” For more information, visit www.outwittingthedevil.com.