How to uncover your best ideas
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Language builds our world. Our ideas make us who we are. And speakers who have figured out how to spread their ideas into otherâs minds have the power to make an incredible impact. Now ask yourself, do you have ideas that deserve a wider audience? That can be a difficult question to answer. Many people donât realize just how many valuable ideas they have. You are the only you thatâs existed in all of human history. Your experiences are yours and yours alone. Some of those experiences have taught you things that are absolutely worth sharing with an audience. You just have to figure out which experience those are. You may feel that you havenât done anything exciting enough to give a talk about. Maybe you tell yourself Iâm not very creative, or Iâm not very smart.
Maybe you canât think of anything that you feel passionate about right now. Well, thatâs a tricky place to start. But you donât need to worry. Because the truth is, everyone has a great talk idea inside of them. Sometimes it just takes a little digging to find it. One reason you may not recognize your great ideas is that you have always been you. You only see yourself from the inside. You may not notices the things that other people find remarkable about you. Thatâs why one good way to uncover your talk-worthy ideas is to have conversations with the people who know you best. They might be able to see things about you that you arenât able to see about yourself, things that would be worth sharing with an audience. There is one thing you have that no one else in the world has, and thatâs your experience. So another way to uncover your great ideas is to ask yourself questions about your life.
What was the last thing you were really excited by? Or anger by? What are some of the things that bring you joy? What annoys you? Whatâs something youâre proud of? Is there something you know a lot about? A subject you could talk about for hours? Is there anything your community could teach other communities? Whatâs a change you would like to see in the world? If you could wave a magic wand, whatâs the one idea youâd most love to spread to other peopleâs minds? Spend some time walking around, open to the possibility that some part of your unique journey could be interesting and helpful for an audience to learn about. Many wonderful talks are based on a personal story, and a simple lesson the speaker took away from it. Your idea could even be a question youâre curious about.
The search for an answer to your question could be the basic for your talk. What are the issues that matter most to you? What are the riddles that people donât yet have good answers for? If you have a subject youâd like to talk about, but arenât sure you really know enough yet, why not use your public speaking opportunity as a way to find out more? In other words, you donât need to have the perfect knowledge in your head today. You could use your talk as a reason to discover more about something that interests to you. The only thing that truly matters in public speaking is not confidence, stage presence, or smooth talking. Itâs having something worth saying.