Basic Manual Speech 10:
Inspire Your Audience

by Luke Setzer

Fellow Toastmasters and most welcome guests…why are you here? Do you have any idea? What do you want? What is your purpose? What's in it for you? What is…your desired outcome?
More than likely, you joined Toastmasters with a goal in mind. Maybe you needed to hone your speaking skills for your job, or you wanted to conquer your fear of speaking in public, or you just wanted to experience personal growth. If you have a goal, congratulations! You have taken the first step in applying…[first chart (1)] the ultimate success formula!

What is the ultimate success formula? According to Anthony Robbins' book UNLIMITED POWER, it is a four-step process for achieving any result you want in life. Are you ready to learn it?
Here it is!

1. [Next chart (2)] Step 1. Know precisely the desired outcome. Figure out your target! Remember target practice? It's not "Fire, Ready, Aim"! It's "Ready, Aim, Fire"! If you don't have a target in mind, you are ruined! Have you ever met someone who was complaining about his life, and when you ask him what he does want, he gives you a blank stare and says, "I dunno." It's a deceptive trap. Don't fall into it! Know precisely your desired outcome.

2. [Next chart (3)] Step 2. Take massive action to achieve the outcome. You've done the "Ready" and "Aim" part. Now, it's time to make your first attempt at actually hitting your target! Don't get into "paralysis by analysis"! There are some people who spend all their time preparing and then never actually do anything! Helen Keller said it best: "Man was born to live, and not to prepare to live." Fire!
a. [Next chart (4)] Now let's step back a moment and ask, "How do you generate that behavior?" The answer: You do it through a process of mind and body. Your mind takes actions in a specific order, a mental syntax. Your body--your physiology--also takes actions in a specific way: posture, breathing patterns, muscular tension and relaxation, and many other subtleties. Together, these make up your state at any moment in time.
b. [Next chart (5)] What has the biggest influence on your state? How about your worldview--your collection of beliefs and the many life references you use to support them? Cognitive therapists will be more than happy to tell you all about the impact of your thinking on your states and thus your behavior. If you already believe you can achieve your desired outcome, do you think that will help you to achieve it? Of course it will. If you believe ahead of time that you'll fail, do you think that could adversely affect your performance? You bet it will!

3. [Next chart (6)] Step 3. Notice quickly whether the action is working. How do you do this? Sensory acuity, my friends. You basic sources for knowing this world are your five senses--seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling. You focus on the evidence of your senses to determine if what you're doing is getting you what you want. Did you hit the target or miss it? How close were you? Is there anything happening to tell you that maybe you're not getting what you want?

4. [Next chart (7)] Step 4. Change the approach as required to attain the outcome. Whoa! What a concept! I missed the target--hey, maybe I should adjust my bowstring, or my arrows, or my eyesight! Maybe I should get a bigger target! Maybe I should stand closer to my target! You must accept the profound responsibility of a judge. You must evaluate your results and ask yourself: "What does this mean? What should I do next?" You've likely seen some people who keep making the same mistakes over and over again, expecting that somehow, some way, they'll finally get a different result. There's a saying for that: "Doing more of what doesn't work will not make it work any better."

[Please turn off the viewgraph light] Now how in the world does all this material fit together?

In the 1970's, business partners Richard Bandler and John Grinder set about the gigantic task of integrating the techniques of the most effective therapists in the world into a concise set of mental tools that could be duplicated by others. Their primary role models were Virginia Satir, a world-renowned family therapist; Fritz Perls, the originator of Gestalt therapy; and Milton Erickson, an incredibly successful hypnotherapist. They studied the techniques of these role models, discovered what distinctions they had made in their years of work, and noticed what techniques these three therapists had in common. Bandler and Grinder then systematized these techniques into a science they christened "Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)." This science can be summarized as "the study of the structure of a person's subjective experience of objective reality." The name itself comes from "neuro", meaning nerves; linguistic, meaning language (both verbal and nonverbal); and programming, meaning they saw the human mind as analogous to a computer that can run different programs at different times. Bandler and Grinder developed and marketed this highly effective methodology to counselors and psychologists all around the country, charging large sums of money for their services. Happily for you, fellow Toastmasters, I have just given you the basics of this powerful discipline. And now, for the final chart to show you how all these pieces fit together into a coherent whole, I present [the final chart]!

Objectivism 101