Professional Speakers Day
I have the best career ever!!
Or at least I feel that I have the absolute right career for me at this time of my life. I get to share my ability to clarify and simplify with my passion for making life more meaningful and successful through speaking with audiences around the country.
Being up on stage is great! It’s not necessarily being the center of attention that I love, but sharing what I have learned and what I have studied with those in the audience. Helping them to see things in different ways – pushing them to think differently about their life situations. Watching for understanding and seeing the ‘light bulb’ moments.
Celebrating Professional Speakers Day
I am a professional speaker. Being on the platform in front of an audience allows me to share my stress and mental health expertise. I am privileged to enjoy what I do to make a living. My message has helped many navigate through life’s difficulties.
August 7th is Professional Speaker’s Day and here in Canada there are about 400 professional speakers who are members of the Canadian Association Of Professional Speakers. We are experts who speak. We cover topics from motivation, to sales, from humour to leadership (and sometimes even at the same time).
Professional Speaking May Not Be Your Cup Of Tea
It is hard to believe that there are some people out there who hate speaking in front of an audience. Some look at professional speakers and think that we are born with the ‘gift’. Some are (not me), but all of us have to work at it. We practice – we fine tune – we continue to find ways to entertain while we educate.
Growing up, I hated giving presentations. My voice would quiver. I would speak a mile a minute. My nervousness was obvious. That all changed when I found my passion – my topic – my expertise. I still get a bit nervous, but I enjoy the experience and I am able to share that enthusiasm and passion with my audience in spite of my nervousness.
Beverly’s Hot Tips For Celebrating Professional Speakers Day and Finding Your Own Passion:
- Don’t let your fears take you away from sharing your passion – use your fears to help you grow and learn so that you can be true to who you were meant to be.
- Don’t choose the easy or safe way just because the alternative seems overwhelming.
- Take the time to examine who you are and who you want to be – are they congruent? Sometimes finding out who we are or who we want to be comes to us in the quiet reflective moments – sometimes in the heat of chaos.
- Believe that you can be more than our little voice of doubt or voices from our past say that we can be.
- Your passion doesn’t have to be your life’s occupation – but how are you making a living – is it drudgery and despised? If yes, that is a terrible way to spend your days and it will probably infect the other areas of your life and will kill the light of passion.
Living your passion doesn’t have to be a public display such as professional speaking – it can be in the kindness that we show to others, by sharing our talents and gifts or by being true to ourselves – ways that are rarely publicly recognized. But taking the time to examine where our passions lie, and finding ways to express that passion, can lead us to a more fulfilled, calm and centered life.
A note to my fellow professional speakers – continue to share your passion and gifts with your audiences, as I know that you help those around you to find their way through to their own passions.
If you have some strategies to share – comment on this posting!
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Professional Speakers Day: Stress and Public Speaking
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