Speak from the Heart…

Speak from the heart is a tip I heard from a participant at a training course a number of years ago. You may have heard it many years before that, but even though I heard it relatively a short time ago, it has still stuck with me as a great way to write and deliver a speech. It is where you put your thoughts on paper that are in your heart and that reflect the person, subject or object that you are talking about in words that stream from your heart to your brain, through your hand and onto paper. When we write from the heart, we write freely, honestly and without reservation. We get really into what we are talking about. We almost make it our own and write about it in a way that is important and that will effect the people (our listeners) in a positive, reflective, memorable way. As we write the speech, it will not have a complete structure, it may in fact be all over the place with no start, middle or end. But, that\’s OK, we are only focusing on content initially i.e. getting what is in our heart / head down onto paper. With all our thoughts on paper, we next put some form of structure to our speech, so that our listeners can follow it and understand what we are saying i.e. our message. They cannot feel confused by our words and how we have ordered them. There must be a flow, almost story-like structure to our speech on paper. So we cut things out, put them in different places in our speech and keep doing this until it sounds logical (at least to us). As we do this, we will change how we have said things, using different words and statements. That is OK, but don\’t forget your heart. When it comes to delivery, the attitude and mindset of speaking from the heart continues. As you wait to be called upon to speak, you will stand in front of your audience. Then you take in the applause and appreciate it and get ready to utter your first words. Not forgetting to breath, you think about the person, object or subject you have prepared your speech on and are about to speak about. Think about it deeply, what it means to you, how important it is to you. This thought process will transfer onto your audience and make them feel similar feelings to you. Speaking from the heart puts you in a different approach, you feel more authentic, more yourself, more sincere, more honest and more able. With the speech content in front of you either in full or as bullet points, you actually enjoy the \’looking forward to\’ and delivering your speech. You obviously stick to the script, which will keep you on track; and with music in your voice, energy in your delivery and a smile on your face you will wow your audience…because when you speak from the heart, your audience connect with you and they remember how you made them feel…