"Make Positive Reaches" - from Daniel Coyle's The Little Book of Talent

by Gilda Bonanno LLC www.gildabonanno.com

Daniel Coyle, the New York Times best-selling author of The Talent Code, has written a fascinating and informative new book, The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills, which includes simple, practical tips based on examples and research from the world’s greatest talent hotbeds.

His tips can be applied to learning presentation skills. One of my favorite tips is #32 Make Positive Reaches: "it always works better to reach for what you want to accomplish, not away from what you want to avoid."

Coyle explains that you have a choice about how you frame your thoughts and that this choice is crucial to your success. 

This is one of the first lessons that I teach to my presentation skills coaching clients - to drown out the negative voice in their heads, the voice that focuses on what you want to avoid and tells you (right before you open your mouth to give a presentation), "don't mess up" or "don't make a fool of yourself."

I called that voice the "Joy-Sucker" because it sucks the joy out of your work and your life.  The Joy-Sucker undermines your confidence and makes you less able to convey your knowledge and experience to your audience.

You have to hear it and recognize it - and then eliminate it so it no longer undermines your skill-building progress. Replace it instead with a positive phrase or mantra that you can repeat to yourself to focus your mind and energy on what you want to accomplish.

 
For more about eliminating the "Joy-Sucker" voice and replacing it with a positive mantra, check out my blog post, Drown Out That Negative Voice in Your Head

For more about the power of your mindset to affect your public speaking skills, check out my blog post, What Do You Tell Yourself About How You Present

For more on Daniel Coyle, including book information and his blog, visit his website http://thetalentcode.com/ 

For my other blog posts inspired by Daniel Coyle, see:


Gilda Bonanno's blog www.gildabonanno.blogspot.com