I'm giving a talk tonight for SFC's Christian Life Program. The talk is "Who is Jesus Christ?"
When I was praying several weeks ago, I was reflecting on what my professor in my CSI class said and I had an epiphany (hehe ... not really ... I'm just trying to make it sound nice). There was a couple of sentences he said that hit me and I said to myself that night, "if I were asked to give a talk, I would want to give talk 2, which is Who is Jesus Christ." And, maybe Harbs and Maloiks are right, maybe I get my wishes granted! :-P They assigned me the talk and gave me the outline for it.
When I read the outline, I realized that the talk is difficult and it's not something I feel I could "deliver" well. As the cliche goes, be careful what you wish for 'coz you might get it. I got what I wished for and I wished (too late) I didn't. Anywho, because I really found the talk difficult, I avoided looking at the outline at all cost. I did think about it though. And I had a mental outline of what I'm going to say. I just didn't write it down. Usually I would have the entire talk written down word for word (I'm a control freak. I need to know that I know what I'm going to say. If not, I would have a mental breakdown. hehe). The time limit for the talks is 25-30 minutes. Two days ago, I wrote the outline. I broke it down to 3 parts - 1) Basic Facts; 2) What He's Like; 3) Who He really is. I looked at it and thought, I might actually pull it off in 15 mins (my past talks ran for 40-45 mins). So, I practiced it and timed myself. First run through, I took 48 minutes. I thought, well, I didn't exactly know what I was saying and I was stuttering for the most part that's why it took that long. I rehearsed it a couple more times, and 38 minutes was as short as I could get it to. 8 minutes more than the allotted time. SIGH!
See, I'm verbose. You can tell just by reading my looong posts. I have a friend who's very concise. His emails tend to be short and direct to the point. Mine tend to be wordy and long. He always complains about it. I really don't know how to be concise. Some people can describe something in 3 words. I would usually need 10.
Anywho, if you're reading this on Feb 16, 2006 before 7 PM Pacific Time, please pray for me. This is my first time giving a talk without the word for word "speech" I usually prepare. I'm really scared I'll go off tangent. Thanks!
When I was praying several weeks ago, I was reflecting on what my professor in my CSI class said and I had an epiphany (hehe ... not really ... I'm just trying to make it sound nice). There was a couple of sentences he said that hit me and I said to myself that night, "if I were asked to give a talk, I would want to give talk 2, which is Who is Jesus Christ." And, maybe Harbs and Maloiks are right, maybe I get my wishes granted! :-P They assigned me the talk and gave me the outline for it.
When I read the outline, I realized that the talk is difficult and it's not something I feel I could "deliver" well. As the cliche goes, be careful what you wish for 'coz you might get it. I got what I wished for and I wished (too late) I didn't. Anywho, because I really found the talk difficult, I avoided looking at the outline at all cost. I did think about it though. And I had a mental outline of what I'm going to say. I just didn't write it down. Usually I would have the entire talk written down word for word (I'm a control freak. I need to know that I know what I'm going to say. If not, I would have a mental breakdown. hehe). The time limit for the talks is 25-30 minutes. Two days ago, I wrote the outline. I broke it down to 3 parts - 1) Basic Facts; 2) What He's Like; 3) Who He really is. I looked at it and thought, I might actually pull it off in 15 mins (my past talks ran for 40-45 mins). So, I practiced it and timed myself. First run through, I took 48 minutes. I thought, well, I didn't exactly know what I was saying and I was stuttering for the most part that's why it took that long. I rehearsed it a couple more times, and 38 minutes was as short as I could get it to. 8 minutes more than the allotted time. SIGH!
See, I'm verbose. You can tell just by reading my looong posts. I have a friend who's very concise. His emails tend to be short and direct to the point. Mine tend to be wordy and long. He always complains about it. I really don't know how to be concise. Some people can describe something in 3 words. I would usually need 10.
Anywho, if you're reading this on Feb 16, 2006 before 7 PM Pacific Time, please pray for me. This is my first time giving a talk without the word for word "speech" I usually prepare. I'm really scared I'll go off tangent. Thanks!
5 comments:
Always be careful what you wish for. :-P
IMHO giving a talk gets easier the more you do it. I remember the first time I was asked to give a talk at the CLP I had serious butterflies in my stomach and I was just so nervous. Nowadays, giving a talk does not faze me much anymore (you should ask me about the time I had less than an hour of lead time to give a talk and there was no outline at all).
I had similar experiences with leading music, leading a prayer meeting, etc. The first few times you are very nervous. After a while, you realize that it is not so bad and all the things you were worried about were really all in your head.
Funny, we tend to work in an opposite manner. I never, ever write down a talk in its entirety. I always just work from an outline. Even the sharing I gave at the BCBP Breakfast last month in Bacolod, I just wrote up a short outline and worked from that. Sometimes, I do not even bother to write stuff down at all. I think it may be all the oral exams I went through in college (all junior and senior year philosophy and theology finals, and sometimes midterms as well, were oral defense type exams where you had to think fast and on your feet) that got me used to not writing everything down. For one, it did force me to really learn and understand the topic material. Also, it allowed me more freedom to pay attention to the people listening and adjust the focus of the talk to whatever areas it looked like they were having trouble with.
Some things I would suggest:
* Keep an eye on the time. If you are going to be speaking from a podium, put your watch there beside your notes / outline / talk and keep an eye on it. It helps you pace yourself better.
* Feel free to skip around or adjust focus (this is where not having the entire talk written down word for word really helps). If you get a feel that your audience already has a good grasp of a particular point, then you can just move on to the next point. Conversely, if you feel that your audience is having difficulty grasping a certain point, spend more time discussing it.
* Remember to breathe.
* Keep a glass of water handy. Talking is thirsty work. Also, the moments you use for taking a gulp of water can be used by you to gather and re-focus your thoughts if you sense yourself wandering.
* Pray. Pray a lot. Pray before, pray during and pray after. Remember that it is God's work you are doing, His word that you are trying to help spread. Pray that God use you as His instrument to spread His word to others.
I will be praying for you later. Heck, if you let me know where it is I can drop by with pompoms and a cheerleading outfit to give you moral support.
Okay, maybe not the pompoms and the cheerleading outfit. :-)
Thank you for the pointers, K. Junby. :-) I like the water part. I never thought of that. That is so true - you can drink and think at the same time. :-)
It'll be at St. Bruno's Church (St. Michael's Hall) at 7:30 pm. I'll be there at around 7 pm. 555 W San Bruno Ave. San Bruno, CA. Is it any wonder they named the Church St. Bruno's? Hehe.
I won't mind your presence, but if you had an cheerleading outfit and pompoms, I think I'll be hecka distracted.
Since it's a CLP (and you know we're recruiting), they might think you're there to join SFC (not that I wouldn't want you to join SFC), so just let them know (in case you do decide to come and you don't see me) what you're there for.
Thanks ulit!
Sige, I will try to drop by (sans the cheerleading outfit and pompoms) later to lend my support and prayers. Kinda all depends on how much work I still need to finish this afternoon, though. We will see. :-)
UY, no pressure on you ha. You work from so far away. And I know it'll take you abt 2 hrs to come down to San Bruno. Tapos pag-uwi another hour. So, don't worry so much about it ha! Anyway, baka mas kabahan ako kung nandun ka (tipong, "shucks, baka anong sabihin ni Kuya Junby sa BCBP"). Hehe.
nice pointers! di ko rin naisip yung sa tubig. all i know is i talk better when i'm holding something. i usually bring a pen. it's also a handy "pointer", hehehe!
and i definitely can't talk without an outline, i'd get lost in my own thoughts. or with a watch beside me, when i learn that i'm running out of time, or i still have too much of it, i space out, and find it hard to pick up. hehehe! guess i'm not a natural "speaker". =P
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