Declutter your busy mind, quiet the voices, and discover the speech you were meant to give.

It’s in there, you just have to let it out.

I have a speech coming up. Here’s my preparation for it, complete with audio notes, practice video sessions, and the real deal.

Take #1

Take #2

Take #3

The Pixar Pitch

For my course (Spark Campfire), I’m using “The Pixar Pitch” to give our books structure. Because it’s on my mind, I’m going to use it here for this speech.

Once upon a time, there was …
Every day …
One day …
Because of that …
Because of that …
Until finally …

Here’s my version:

Once upon a time, there was … a guy with lots of ideas.
Every day … he churned through them and did lots of work.
One day … he couldn’t remember which idea was the most important. He quieted his busy mind and the light bulb went off.
Because of that … he figured out his direction, knew what his next book was going to be about, and…what he was going to have for breakfast.
Because of that … he no longer wasted time on ideas that weren’t worth his time.
Until finally … he achieved clarity of purpose like he didn’t know was previously possible.

OK, that was interesting. It’s a good process to see how you’re thinking.

Outline

I need to write out my thoughts. They’re becoming more clear.

(Opening) Secret to share.
Clutter, busyness, fog, vague, confusion,
Quiet the mind, not silence, listen, allow, meditation,
Clarity, focus, choice, decisions, judges, voting,
One method, “my secret,” but you can do what you like, the lakebed,
Answers are inside, not outside. (internal, we know what to do).

Opening

Secret

[Whisper something into ear of audience member.]

Oh, you want to know what I said? Well, it’s a secret. If I tell you, it’s no longer a secret.

Last week, our very own Cora Hollander was interviewed during the ToastMasters competition. She won the English evaluation contest and was asked about how she structured her evaluations.

She proceeded to tell the audience how she did it. Then she caught herself and said, “Wow, I just gave away all of my secrets.”

Sure, she gave away some secrets. But she gave away the secrets to her process. “Here you go, I do this, then that, then finish off with some of this. 1, 2, 3.”

The key, the trick, the real secret is that she implements her process. She does it. She practices, she gets better, she listens to feedback and improves.

The secret she gave away is the process.

Today I’d like to share with you a “secret” process many people use to figure out how to declutter our busy minds, gain some clarity, and figure out which speech to give.

You may remember a few weeks ago, I introduced you to our 3 internal judges: the mind, the heart, and the gut.

However, we, the person, the whole package, still need to make the final decision.

If it’s not clear what to do based on the voting from your 3 judges, we need to take things to another level.

We need to step into the lake.

Remember, this just my process. Just like Cora has a process for evaluations, steps 1, 2, 3, this is my secret process to declutter our busy minds.

17 Minutes

This is a variation on the meditation I do every single morning–and have done for the past few years.

Let me just try to weigh on you the power these 17 minutes have on me. If I had to give a “number” to it all, I would say that the 17 minutes makes for 17 hours of a more efficient day.

Did you catch that? Each minute spent in meditation gives me 1 hour of more effective, efficient time during that day.

If there were a pill you could take in the morning that gave you clarity for the next 17 hours of your day, would you take it? Of course! How much would we be willing to pay for it? What if there were side effects?

If you could spend 17 minutes and turn that into a rocking 17 hours of productivity, clarity, and get answers to your questions, would you make the time?

This evening, we’re going to do a quick 17-second version of it to give you an idea of how it works.