You Can Learn to Remember: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life pdfdrive com

making speeches
M
aking speeches can strike fear into the hearts of the best of us. Even actors,
comedians, lawyers, priests, politicians and many others who regularly speak in
public will confess to becoming nervous before a “performance”. However, if
we have confidence in our memory, have organized the speech well and can
devise a trigger system that will set off our first and subsequent thoughts, then
speech-nerves can become a thing of the past.
Used appropriately, the journey method (see pp.
102–7
) can provide one of
the best ways to effectively memorize a speech. Firstly, it provides a pre-
established “first thought” (the starting post of the journey, removing the tension
about recalling the first words of the speech). But, more importantly, it creates a
logical, visual system by which we are able to anchor all the main points of what
we want to say.
If you are unaccustomed to making speeches, spend some time establishing
the content and ensuring that it will be logical, coherent and imaginative – this in
itself will make it more memorable for you. Use a Mind Map to help organize

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the main points you want to make. Then, write a paragraph about each point,
making sure that your argument follows a clear logic. You might ask a friend to
read through it and make suggestions. Once your speech is written, read it twice
in its complete form so that you are completely familiar with it.
Decide what journey will act as the framework of your speech. You may
pick a trip that is related to the event at which you are making the speech (if you
are the best man at your friend’s wedding, you might choose the walk between
your house and his or a hike you once did together). Mentally run through the
journey a few times – ideally choose one that you already use – and establish the
stages at which you will come to the points in your speech.
Now refer back to the Mind Map that you made before writing out your
speech. Visualize each key point as a single, highly creative image. If the first
point in your best man’s speech is that the bride and groom met on a fishing trip,
you might visualize two fish dressed in wedding outfits dancing. Use your
senses. What do they smell like? What noises do their fins make as they dance?
Once you have created a visualization for each point in the speech, mentally
walk your journey, depositing the visualizations in order at the established stages
on the route. Try to make the image interact with the setting. For example, if the
first stage in your journey is the front porch of your home, perhaps you have to
push past the dancing “fish” to get down your path. Imagine reciting the words
of the speech between the stages.
Play the journey over to yourself in this way at least five times: one hour
after you have devised it; the next day; and then at regular intervals until the big
day. According to the revision rule of five (whereby repeating something five
times commits it permanently to memory), the speech should now be
unforgettable, and along with it the triggers that will allow you to give a
scintillating and confident talk. However, if when you stand up to start speaking,
you still feel fearful, take a deep breath. Close your eyes and imagine yourself at
the start of your journey. Take your first mental step, open your eyes and talk.
The rest will come naturally.