Lessons Along the Journey of Life
Welcome back to our speechwriting and presentation tips series.
Today, we would like to talk about using Lessons Along the Journey of Life as the basis for a good speech or good presentation.
"Life is about the journey, not the destination." We may have heard the quote, in one form or another, but when we look at presentation topics, the lessons we learned along the journey of life offers us endless possibilities.
Let's start with an example of a friend, Mike, who runs a lot of marathons. He discovered, after running 22 marathons, that he just wasn't reaching his desired finish time. He hired a coach to find out how he could improve. The coach told him he had all the tactics in place to win, but he wasn't using the right strategy. He could easily give a presentation to fellow runners, or people interested in running, about this experience and process, but he took it one step further. He realized that using the proper strategy in running a marathon was closely related to using the proper strategy in running his business. Using what he learned from the marathon coach, and applying this to his business, he has grown his business by more than 70%. Now, he can also talk to small business owners about using the right strategy to grow their business. He has taken a real-life experience, realized the lesson, and presents this lesson to others.
When I was going through cancer treatments, I needed to feel like I had control over some part of my life. To help keep my mind focused, I thought about what was happening as a journey. The structure I used to help focus the thinking was to develop 20 "lessons" I learned along the path to healing. In this case, the lessons served as the structure for my presentations. Depending on the time, audience, and event, I can pick and choose the lessons I want to emphasize the most to highlight my points. Here are the lessons:
One: Don't put off your yearly exams. Make the call -- schedule the appointment.
Two: Trust your own instincts.
Three: Keep a record of everything that is happening.
Four: Develop a personal mantra to replace negative thoughts.
Five: Recruit your personal Humor Team (no cost involved).
Six: Be prepared to put up your own personal shield of protection.
Seven: Start and keep a "Recovery File."
Eight: Find love and laughter everywhere.
Nine: Tell your closest family and friends of your diagnosis in person.
Ten: Be informed.
Eleven: Remain positive in every single way that you can -- no matter how small.
Twelve: Write down the questions the you want to ask.
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Thirteen: Look for the smallest blessings in each day.
Fourteen: Know that you have choices.
Fifteen: Remember, you are a unique person!
Sixteen: Celebrate the smallest victories.
Seventeen: Accept that there are some things in life we cannot change.
Eighteen: Keep your doctors and healthcare providers accountable.
Nineteen: Thank your healthcare providers.
Twenty: Live life to the fullest!
From each of these twenty lessons, I could develop an entire presentation by using some of the elements we have discussed. For example, Lesson One: Don't put off your yearly exams. Make the call -- schedule the appointment. If I was thinking of three points related just to this topic I could use:
Or, Lesson Eight: Find love and laughter everywhere.
In fact, each of these points could be another presentation. See how this works? You are really only limited by your imagination.
The lessons can be very straightforward, such as, I burned myself on the kitchen stove, and turn this lesson into a presentation on home safety. It does not have to be a long, drawn-out experience to make an effective presentation and teach a valuable lesson.
You may have similar experiences where you learned a valuable lesson along your path and can share this knowledge with someone else. Lessons can be from your childhood, home life, workplace, community service, raising children, dealing with a divorce or illness, caring for an elderly parent, and the list goes on and on.
I encourage you to think about the lessons you have learned along your journey called life and use them as the foundation for a presentation. As a starting point, write down some lessons you have learned and at least three things you could talk about with each lesson.
In our next article, we will talk about "People I Have Met" and using those meetings as a jumping off point to put together a great presentation.
?Tammy A. Miller