Chapter 67 Excellent eloquence comes from continuous practice

A good eloquence is not born, it needs continuous practice the day after tomorrow.Through practice, on the one hand, you can improve your eloquence, and on the other hand, you can also cultivate connotation and increase knowledge.Be confident in yourself, make up your mind, keep making connections, and you will soon be a knowledgeable and eloquent person. The content of the speech must have thought and wisdom. A speaker must be a thinker. A person talks for a long time, but the audience can't understand what he is talking about. This is a failure for the speaker. Only when a person has a good way of thinking can he be able to make thoughtful speeches.

Once, a young man eager to study law wrote to Lincoln for advice.Lincoln replied: "If you have made up your mind to be a lawyer, you are more than half done. Always remember that your own determination is more important than anything else." Lincoln understood, he had experienced it.Throughout his life, he received no more than one year of formal education in total.There was always a fire burning all night in his cabin, and he sometimes read by the light.There was a crack in the wall of the cabin, and Lincoln often stuck a book in there.Wait until the morning is bright enough to read a book.

He would walk twenty or thirty miles to hear speeches, and when he got home he practiced speeches everywhere—in the fields, in the woods, in crowded gatherings.He is very shy in front of women. When he pursues Mary Tedo, he always sits in the corridor, shy and silent, unable to find anything to say, and only listens to her singing a one-man show alone.But this was the man who studied at home and practiced everywhere until he fashioned himself into a speaker, and even debated with Senator Douglas, the most eminent orator of his time.This is the man who, at Gettysburg and then in his second inaugural address, made the most outrageous arguments of all time.

A portrait of Lincoln hangs on the wall of the White House's Oval Office. "Oftentimes when I have something to decide," said Theodore Roosevelt, "like something complicated and intractable, like something with conflicting interests, I'll look up at Lincoln and pretend he's in my place. absurd as it may sound, but really, every time I look at him, it makes my problem a lot easier." Why don't we try Roosevelt's approach?If you're depressed and want to give up on being a more effective speaker, why not ask yourself what he would do in such a situation?You know what he will do.After he ran for the Senate seat but lost to Dodgers, he also earnestly warned his supporters not to "give up after 1 or 100 setbacks."It can be seen that excellent eloquence comes from continuous practice. We should pay attention to in our daily life:

(1) Look for opportunities to practice speaking. The way we communicate also affects our work, let's discuss this now.As salespeople, managers, group leaders, teachers, and lawyers, we all have responsibilities to explain to others what we know in our area of ​​expertise and to give professional guidance.Our ability to make these explanations in clear, concise language is often the yardstick our bosses use to judge our abilities. Engaging in "explanatory" speaking exercises develops the skills of quick thinking and quick dialogue, but this skill is by no means limited to formal speeches-it can be used by each of us in our daily lives.Recently, oral communication courses are surging in various professional organizations, which further illustrates the emphasis and emphasis on effective communication in all walks of life.

Applying the principles in this book to your everyday communications can often lead to unexpected bountiful harvests.In addition, you should look for every opportunity to speak in public.How do we do this?It is recommended that you join a club where you have the opportunity to speak in public.Don't just be an inactive member, do your best to help out with committee work, most of which are asking for help. (2) Be persistent. When we learn anything new, like French, golf, or speaking in public, we tend to make steady progress if we stick with it.Our performance may rise and fall like a wave, and then we stand still for a while, or we may even stagnate or decline, a phenomenon well understood by all psychologists.This period is often referred to as the "high ground in the learning curve."

Students learning to speak effectively also sometimes get stuck on these high grounds for weeks.Maybe they have worked hard for a long time, but they just can't get rid of this dilemma.A weak-willed person may give up in despair, but a brave man will persevere.Then they will suddenly find that almost overnight, without knowing why, a miracle happened.They have advanced by leaps and bounds.They take off from a high altitude like an airplane, and suddenly they give their speeches naturalness, strength and confidence. As long as you persevere, soon all your worries will be wiped away.Including this incipient fear, and it stops at the incipient fear.After the first few sentences, you will have complete control over yourself, and you will speak with confidence and joy.