quotations Archives - Bronwyn Ritchie -

Public speaking education

How can we learn to become public speakers?
How do we learn public speaking?

Formal education will make a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

Formal education.
I have post graduate qualifications. Most of the time that I was studying I had no idea what good it would do me,
and at times I had no idea what I would do with it.
And those two things can be very different!!
That was my formal education.
In my employment I was very grateful for those qualifications because they were recognised wherever I went and I was given employment and wages commensurate with their level.
They made me a living and a good one at that!
Self-education.
A lifelong pursuit, self-education! The older I get, the more intense it becomes. Perhaps I am now cramming!!
We learn by doing.
We learn to avoid pain.
We learn to pursue dreams and goals.
We learn to survive, sometimes.
We learn by research.
We learn by modelling.
We learn through our connection with other people.
And while that comes through formal education, it continues and is far more intense through self-education.
I suspect that in Jim Rohn’s time, there was also very little formal education in things like resilience, risk-taking, entrepreneurship, goal-setting.
I suspect also that in his time, formal education was undertaken under compulsion and the subjects studied, like mine, seemingly having very little correlation with the individual’s needs or innate abilities.
We learned a trade or a profession through formal education.
We learned to take that trade or profession out into the world through self education.
And the same can be said of public speaking.
We learn by doing.
We learn to avoid pain.
We learn to pursue dreams and goals.
We learn to survive, sometimes.
We learn by research.
We learn by modelling.
We learn through our connection with other people.
And while that comes through formal education, it continues and is far more intense through self-education.

quotations, story, storytelling

We tell ourselves stories in order to live. ~ Joan Didion

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[Inspiration] The Holy Grail is something you experience

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[Quotation about Public Speaking] No audience ever complained …

“No audience ever complained about a presentation or speech being too short”
― Stephen Keague, The Little Red Handbook of Public Speaking and Presenting

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[Quotation about public speaking] Public speaking will have its place

“As long as there are human rights to be defended; as long as there are great interests to be guarded; as long as the welfare of nations is a matter for discussion so long will public speaking have it place.” ~ William Jennings Bryan

In my current obsession with storytelling, I have discovered a Hopi Proverb which says the “Those who tell the stories rule the world.”
Leaders everywhere are those who give their followers something to believe in, a narrative that explains the present and paints a future.
And leaders are not just those in government or religion.
They lead in business, they lead in our institutions, they lead in our families.
We all have the capacity to be a leader at some time.
I am only thankful that the skills of public speaking are there to give us the power to lead and to create a world with values that we can uphold.

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[Inspiration] … from Sir Edmund Hilary

“People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.”
– Sir Edmund Hilary

It’s quite a powerful distinction, Sir Edmund has made here. I haven’t read a lot about him, but I suspect he was a very humble man. Nevertheless it’s a truth that takes some accepting, when so often we believe that we have to be up to a standard before we can accomplish something. It’s certainly something I am learning – that I can Do, then Be, then Have rather than expecting it to work the other way that I need to Be first.

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How do you express what cannot be said?

This is a beautiful quotation.
But now I’m giving it some deeper thought.
Really? … “what cannot be said” … what is it that cannot be said that music can express?
I would love to hear your ideas, because there are some incredibly eloquent writers and speakers whom I admire hugely, and I cannot help wondering what it is that they cannot express that music can…?
And add to that the criterion … “on which it is impossible to be silent”
Do comment!
Another thought that occurs to me is that we use images as we speak sometimes, and they add a new dimension to our spoken words.
What is the role of music here? Would it add a dimension, or speak for itself?

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[Inspiration] Focus

“Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets.”
Nido Qubein

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[Inspiration] Missing your share of happiness?

“Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.”
William Feather

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[Inspiration] Do you have one foot on the brake?

“Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain.
The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?”
Mary Manin Morrissey
Original image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/truk/3558806/