Rehearsing

When is the last time you took the time to rehearse something?  Perhaps you are going in for an annual review; practice what you want to say. Way back in the mid fifties I took a speaking course and then wrote a speech asking for a raise.  At the first annual review I ever had I delivered the little speech I had prepared and rehearsed again and again. I got that raise and that raise is still reflected in the pension that I have been receiving for over thirty years now.  Maybe there is something that really bothers you about someone else’s conduct, perhaps a close loved one. How can you produce change in their behavior? Find a safe way to call this to their attention. Put it into words and then Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse.

A friend who had become a fantastic speaker once asked me how I continued to improve and then he hired me for a presentation and the evening before my presentation he came into the bit hall at that casino in Las Vegas and caught me onstage practicing a new gesture.  He confided to me that he felt he had been improving his performance year after year but the past couple of years he seemed to be stuck at his level of performance.  He said to me, “Watching you onstage practicing made me realize that I had quit rehearsing.”

Give it a try.  I’m rehearsing right now, this morning and I need to do it again and again and again.  And when I walk onstage and the spotlight comes on me I hope to be the very best me that I possibly can be.