Speakers Losing their Train of Thought

It's a very common concern for speakers, being fearful of losing track of one's train of thought while training or speaking.

And that fear or concern is justifiable. When you're on stage, you need to be at the top of your game. Clear minded. Clear spoken. Analytical but pragmatic. Effective. Strategic. And flexible... very, very flexible.

Losing your train of thought potentially makes your mind seem haphazard, not in control. Worse, the avoidance of this often creates more worry, concern, and anxiety.

However, breathe easy! This can actually be eliminated (or at least, highly diminished)!

To solve this, use (1) compelling values-based headlines, and (2) emotional-state-chaining.

For values-based headlines, study the use of headlines in marketing as a way of building curiosity for the right reasons (and no, not cheesy newspaper headlines!).

For emotional state chaining, you can study how famous speakers like Anthony Robbins move audiences (though he doesn't actually train that skill, himself). You can also learn this from my "Automatic Yes" CD-set.

The pair of these strategies is absolutely amazing for speakers. And for those people who want the fastest possible route to getting good at solving this challenge, I teach these skills in depth at my version of a trainers' training -- my "Speaking Ingeniously" course.

Once you get really good at headlines & emotional-state-chaining, then... you may forget a particular point, or a particular way of expressing a point, but... if you keep in mind (1) your headline, and (2) the larger emotional chain, you'll always be able to recover where you're at in the chain. And that leads to more fluid presentations, less lost trains of thought, and more action from your audiences!

This particular success strategy is truly a 'thing of beauty', and more importantly, it eliminates unwanted anxiety or stress for speakers, when your process on stage becomes "Fault Tolerant!" Enjoy!

 

Author: Jonathan Altfeld