Carnegie Language Breakthroughs and the Art of Communication

Chapter 35 The Challenge of Effective Speaking (7)
In ordinary speech these purposes are mutually inclusive and change from day to day.One moment we may be schmoozing with a friend, and suddenly the next moment we're trying to sell a product or urging our kids to put their allowance in the bank.If you can apply the techniques described in this book to everyday conversation, you will be able to express your ideas more effectively, and you will be able to skillfully and successfully motivate others to fully achieve our purpose.

1. Use specific details in everyday conversation

Let me illustrate with one of these techniques.Do you remember when I suggested that you add details to your presentation so that your ideas come to life in a picturesque way?Of course, my main concern at the time was how you would speak in front of a crowd, actually, aren't details as important in everyday conversation?Think back to those really humorous great speakers we are familiar with, don't they also have a superb ability to use picture language?Didn't they also add colorful and dramatic details to their speech?
Before you can start developing your conversational skills, you have to be confident.Everything in this book so far has been very useful in giving you a sense of security, courage to be around others, and the courage to express yourself in informal social groups.Once you are passionate about expressing your thoughts, you will start to pay attention to everything around you, retrieve your past experiences, and use them as data for your topic.After this pass, something amazing happens—your vision begins to expand, and you see a new layer of meaning in your life.

The housewives used to have somewhat limited interest in chatting, and those topics were only interesting in their own small world, but since they used the speaking skills we introduced in the small talk circle, they excitedly reported their new experience. "I found myself gaining more confidence from then on, giving me the courage to stand up and speak at social gatherings," a woman named Hart told her classmates at a public speaking class in Cincinnati. Interested in current affairs. I am no longer daunted by formal conversation gatherings. On the contrary, I have been able to join in eagerly. Not only that, but everything I have done has become good material for my conversation. I find myself already interested in many New activities generate interest."

Ms. Hart's words of gratitude are not flattering for an educator. Once the drive to "learn" and "apply what you've learned" is stimulated, it begins a chain of actions and interactions that bring your whole personality to life, creating a cycle of achievement.As Ms. Hart says, putting into practice just one of the principles in this book can bring great personal fulfillment.

Not all of us are teachers of a certain profession, but every day we have many times to use words to explain something to others.Such as parents teaching their children, such as explaining new ways to prune roses to neighbors, such as exchanging opinions with other tourists on the best travel routes.All of these situations require speaking, and require clear, coherent thinking and powerful expression.The speaking skills introduced in the previous chapters can also be applied to these occasions.

2. Use effective speaking skills at work

The method of communication also affects our work, and we will discuss this aspect now.As a salesperson, manager, clerk, department head, team leader, teacher, pastor, nurse, supervisor, doctor, lawyer, accountant, or engineer, we all have a role in which we need to explain the knowledge and give them professional guidance.Our ability to make these presentations in clear, concise language is often the yardstick our superiors use to judge our abilities.Engaging in "explanatory" speaking exercises allows us to develop the skills of quick thinking and quick use of words, but these skills are not limited to formal speeches. They can also be used by each of us on a daily basis.

3. Look for opportunities to speak in public
Applying the principles in this book in everyday language can often lead to unexpected harvests.In addition, you should look for and take advantage of every opportunity to speak in public.How can we achieve this goal?For example, you could join a club that gives you the opportunity to speak in public.Don't just be an inactive member, just be a bystander.In this club, you're expected to pull out all the stops and help with committee work, most of which you're asking for.Try to be the host of the show, which can give you the opportunity to interview excellent speakers in the community, and you will naturally have to take on the task of delivering presentations.

Use the advice in this book as a guide to start practicing your 20- to 30-minute speeches early.Let people in your club or organization know that you are preparing to speak to them.Fundraising organizations looking for volunteers to do their pitches will give you a set of speaking tips that will help you a lot in preparing your speech.Many important speakers have started in this way, and some of them have even risen to extraordinary success.Take Samuel Levinson, for example, a radio and television star and a sought-after speaker across the country.He used to be a middle school teacher in New York, and usually likes to give short conversations about the things he knows best-like his family, relatives, students, and unusual aspects of his work.Unexpectedly, these talks produced an enthusiastic response from the audience, and soon he was invited to speak to many groups.Although these foreign affairs have greatly affected his teaching work, he has been a special guest on many radio programs.Before long, he turned his talents entirely to the world of entertainment.

4. Must persevere
When we learn anything new, like French, golf, or public speaking, progress is never steady.Our performance will be wave-like, it will stop suddenly after a period of climax, and it may even slide downhill sometimes, losing some positions that have been gained previously.This phenomenon of stagnation or decline is well understood by all psychologists.This period is also known as the "plateau in the learning curve".Students who learn to speak effectively are sometimes stuck on these plateaus for weeks on end.Maybe they worked hard for a long time, but they just couldn't move forward.The weak will give up in despair, but the brave will persevere.After surviving this stage, they will suddenly find that almost overnight, without knowing the reason, a miracle happened, and they can already leap thousands of miles.They took off from a plateau like an airplane, and rose abruptly into the air, giving them confidence in their speeches.

You may, as I have stated elsewhere in this book, experience some fear, some shock, some mental tension when first confronting an audience.Even great musicians who have done countless public performances feel the same way.When Paderewski was about to sit down in front of the piano, he was always fumbling with his cuffs nervously.But as soon as he started playing, all his fears vanished like fog in an August sun.

His experience can also be used as a reference for you when going through this situation.As long as you can persevere, soon all your worries will be wiped away.Including this initial fear, after you have said the first few sentences, you will completely control yourself, and after passing this level, you will speak with confidence and joy.

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 determination to believe that you will succeed is more important than anything else."

Lincoln understood this, he had experienced it.Throughout his life, the formal education he received did not exceed one year in total.Where are the books?Never left.Lincoln once said that he once walked 1 miles to borrow a book.In his cabin, a fire was always burning all night, and sometimes he would read by its light.There was a crack in the wood of the log cabin, and Lincoln would often stick a book in there.When it was dawn and he could read a book in the morning, he got up from the bed of leaves, rubbed his eyes, pulled out the book and started to "gobble it up".

He would walk twenty or thirty miles to hear speeches, and when he got home, he practiced speeches everywhere, in fields, in woods, in front of crowds gathered in grocery stores.He also joined the literary and debate societies of New Sharon and Springfield, where he practiced and commented on various topics of the day.He is very shy in front of women. When he pursues Mary, 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.And yet this was the man who, by studying at home and practicing everywhere, made himself a speaker, and was able to take on the most eminent orator of his time, Senator Douglas, in the debate of the century.This is the man who gave the Gettysburg speech and went on to give the second inaugural speech the greatest of all generations.

Considering all the difficult setbacks and heart-rending struggles he has suffered, it is no wonder that Lincoln said: "If you have made up your mind to be a lawyer, the matter is more than half done."

A fine portrait of Lincoln hangs on the wall of the Oval Office in the White House. "Oftentimes when I have something to decide," said Theodore Roosevelt, "something complex and intractable, some conflicting interest, I'll look up at Lincoln and pretend he's in my place absurd as it may sound, but really, it seems to make my problem much easier to solve."

Why not try Roosevelt's approach?If you're depressed and ready to give up on being a more effective speaker, why not ask yourself what would he do in such a situation?You know what he will do.After he ran for the Senate seat and lost to Douglas, he also earnestly warned his supporters not to "give up after one setback or a hundred setbacks."

5. Visualize what you will achieve

If only I could teach you to open this book on the breakfast table every morning until you take to heart these words of Professor William James:
May the youth not worry about the results of their education, whatever its boundaries may be.As long as he is faithfully busy every hour of his daily working hours, he can leave the final result to himself.He can confidently look forward to waking up one fine morning to find himself one of the talents of his generation, no matter what he chooses to pursue.

Now, even with the famed Professor James at the back of me, I would say that as long as you practice consistently and intelligently, you can confidently hope that you will wake up one fine morning and find yourself an urban or One of the preeminent speakers in the community.

However fanciful this may sound, it is a true general rule.There are exceptions, of course. If a person has an extremely low self-esteem and has no information to discuss, he naturally cannot imagine that one day he will become the Daniel Webster of today.But in general terms, the assertion is correct.

Let me illustrate with an example.Former New Jersey Governor Stocker once attended the graduation dinner of one of our shifts in Chunteng.He commented that the speeches he heard that night were as good as those he had heard in the Senate and House of Representatives in Washington.These "speakers" in Chunteng were, just a few months ago, tongue-tied businessmen who feared their audience.Remember, these are the merchants of New Jersey, not the ancient Cicero, they are the merchants that you can find in any city in the United States.But they wake up one fine morning and find themselves among the great speakers in the city, and even famous all over the country!

I have known thousands of people and watched them carefully, and found that they struggled to gain confidence, to be able to speak in public.Among those successful people, very few are real geniuses, and most of them are ordinary businessmen who can be seen everywhere in their hometown towns, but they are willing to persevere.On the contrary, those special people are sometimes discouraged, and sometimes because they are too stingy about making money, they end up mediocre and lackluster.Although they are ordinary people, as long as they have courage and goals, when they reach the end of the road, they often climb to the top.

This is in line with human nature and nature.Don't you see this sort of thing happening all the time in business and in all walks of life?John D. Rockefeller Sr. once said that the first key to business success is patience and understanding, and the harvest will eventually come.It is also one of the first conditions for effective speaking to be successful.

A few summers ago, in the Austrian Alps, I set out to climb a mountain called Werder Kaiser. According to "Baker's Travel Guide", it is very difficult to climb the peak, and amateur climbers should prepare guides.Neither my friend nor I hired a guide, and we are certainly amateurs.So a third person asks us, are we confident that we can succeed? "Of course!" we replied.

"Why do you think so?" he asked.

"Others have succeeded without a guide," I said, "so I know it makes sense, and I never think of failure in anything I do."

This is the right mindset to have in everything from giving speeches to conquering Mount Everest.

How successful you are will depend a lot on the thinking you do before you speak.Imagine yourself speaking to someone with complete self-control.

This is something that is extremely easy to do within your ability.Believe that you will succeed, believe firmly, and you will do what is necessary to lead to success.

During the Civil War, Admiral Dupont cited a long list of plausible reasons why he could not lead a battleship into Port Charles.Admiral Farragh listened attentively to the narration. "But there's another reason you didn't mention," he said.

"What reason?" Admiral Du Pang asked.

The answer was: "You don't believe you can do it."

The most valuable thing that most of the students who train in our classes have gained is a surge of confidence in themselves and a little more trust in their ability to succeed.In various careers, what could be more important to a person than success!
Emerson wrote, "There is no greatness without zeal." It's not just a literary rhetoric, it's a map of the road to success.

William Lyon Fair was probably the most beloved and popular professor who ever taught at Yale.He stated in the book "Teaching Fever": "For me, teaching is more than art and other professions. It is a kind of fanaticism. I love teaching, just like painters love painting, singers love singing, poets love Write. Before I get out of bed in the morning, I always think warmly and cheerfully about my group of students."

A teacher is full of enthusiasm for his profession and excited about the work in front of him. How strange is it that he can achieve success?Much of the reason Professor Fair has such an impact on his students is the care, sincerity, and passion he brings to his teaching.

Add passion to the learning of effective speaking, and you'll find all the obstacles along the way disappear.It is a challenge to focus all your mind and strength on the goal of communicating effectively with your fellow-brethren.Think of that air of self-assurance, confidence, and ease that is all yours, and think of that sense of triumph that grabs attention, shakes emotion, and convinces a crowd to act.You will find that the ability to express yourself develops other abilities as well, because effective speaking training is a smooth path to building the self-confidence necessary for every walk of life and all kinds of life.

In my teaching manual for teachers who teach the Dale Carnegie Course, I wrote these words:

When students find themselves able to command the attention of the audience, to be praised by the teacher, and to be applauded by the class—when they are able to do this, they have developed a sense of inner strength, courage and equanimity that It's something they've never experienced.How is the result?They set out to do and accomplish things they never dreamed were possible.They begin to find themselves eager to speak in front of people, to become active in business and in various industry and community activities, and finally to become leaders.

Clear, forceful, powerful expression is one of the hallmarks of dominance in our society.This expression dominates the leader.Whether you are in a private interview or in a public announcement, as long as all your words can make good use of the skills in this book, you will surely make you confident in your family, church groups, civil organizations, companies, and government agencies. Lun.

(End of this chapter)