Are You Speaking With a Clear Vision?
In 1962, President John Kennedy began speaking before a crowd of over 40,000 people in Rice Stadium in Texas. He laid out an ambitious goal for the United States. “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
Is this a story in the traditional sense? Technically, no, but it’s certainly a vision of the future. And that vision tells a story of millions of Americans working together with the common goal of winning a race to be the first to another celestial body to advance the world technologically.
President Kennedy could have said, “Our goal is to be the first to safely send men to the moon and return them back to Earth. As you can see on this chart, we’ll be funding this with a $25 billion investment. Graph #1 shows an increasing workforce that will plateau at over 300,000, and we will accomplish this goal in 7-1/2 years, which is the equivalent of 36,000,000 total man-hours. We accept this challenge because our calculations are that the odds of success are 61.8%”
Although the numbers may have been correct, would the second presentation have inspired the public in the way his emotional language did? Highly doubtful.
That is the power of vision. You and I will probably never be speaking to Americans about a lofty goal as inspiring Americans to visit distant moons or planets. But your vision of the future can still inspire others.
As you prepare your next talk, remember that to one way to inspire your audience is to paint a picture that touches the emotions and challenges them to think beyond their current state.
When have you been inspired by a speaker with a clear vision?
You’re invited to leave comments below.
Educational Resource of the Week
From Good to Great: 10 Little Known Techniques, by Patricia Fripp
Speaking Strategies that will take your Speech from Simple to Scintillatingly Superb! Award-winning speaker and in-demand speech coach Patricia is in fine form in this 90 minute action-packed session before 150 professional speakers. You will hear her best advice after 25 years of studying how to have impact on the platform. You benefit from listening in on the mini-coaching sessions.
For more information, visit: http://www.webmarketingmagic.com/app/?af=1512094. Click the SPEAKING tab. Scroll down to the information about From Good to Great: 10 Little Known Techniques