First Write then Talk

The session on this Saturday was like no other; our coordinator began explaining us the importance of writing our thoughts before expressing them. When what we want to communicate is clear within our brain, then half the battle is won.

The process of speaking involves 3 major steps
1)     Gather your thoughts -> 2) articulate -> 3) delivery.

We forget about the first 2 steps and worry only about the 3^rd step – worsening the situation/problem.
Nervousness is always 50% due to lack of preparation and other 50% is due to Delivery style.

Lack of preparation is what we can control. We should never worry about what we cannot control

The best tip is to always jot down what you want to say on a piece of paper and keep that paper with you it works like magic.

We began the session with self-introduction, but this time we prepared our introduction, we first wrote about ourselves on piece of paper and then had ample time to reflect upon our thoughts and to mentally prepare on what to say and how to say.

First to go was Abhinav, he did well today he was oozing with confidence and handled stage very well, he is slowly getting rid of his secondary symptoms, although fillers could have been avoided, but all in all a good show by him.

Jeetu was second in line, he was known to finish his introduction soon and with a barely audible voice but since we had prepared our introductions, jeetu felt confident and elaborated on this introduction and his voice was more than audible.

Upasana was next to go, she was new in our meeting but she felt comfortable and she came with such hope that her speech was effortless, she was smiling all along her speech which made her and audience at ease.

Tanoy our Bengali babu was fourth in line; he covered all the points effectively, I guess in this session the self-belief was so high that everyone felt invincible when on stage.

Chandan was on stage and did he set it on fire, he gave his speech and was only person not to use any fillers or helping words, he stuttered but with style. He was calm in his thoughts and that reflected in his speech.

Biju an experienced toastmasters club member followed next on to the stage, he crafted his speech in such beautiful manner that it left most of us spellbound,  inspiration about him was that he had joined the club when he had stuttering and his technique was simple  “go out and talk to people”.

I was next to take on stage, stage doesn’t frighten me as I have been on it so many times but today I did falter, I started in hurry and ended up stuttering, hence I tried again, and was able to finish my introduction I used the most fillers than anybody else in that gathering. Ironically today was my 3^rd speech as well and I was confident when I was sitting in audience but on that day stage charm continued to elude me and I ended up using fillers and helping words, although my content of speech was good my delivery could have been better.

Murali was the last one to hit the stage, he reached late to meeting but he had got the gist of our meeting agenda and he too began his introduction with his prepared notes and did well to finish in grandeur.

Today everyone spoke so much that we took 3 hours to complete introduction. Power of "first write then talk”, Gathering all thoughts on paper are vital for effective communication. We all learned an important lesion that we cannot control most of things in life, but what we can control , we need to …….

Attendees: Abhinav, Jeetu, Upasana, Tanoy, Chandan, Sairam, Biju, Murali, our beloved coordinator Dinesh Singh and your narrator Pavan

Karthik could not be physically present but he attended the meeting through Skype!! 

Write-up by Pawan.
for any queries please mail to dinesh.daredevil@gmail.com