Professional speakers need a wide variety of skills in their repertoire. Who knows which tool/s they will need to rely on and when.
I was hanging out at a salon (training session) with a group of National Speakers Association professionals and wannabes. In a brainstorming session a list was created of desired skills.
One of the desired skills is optimism.
This would seem to be something you either have or don’t have. No?
Can optimism be learned? Or at least improved upon?
I think so.
Read: How the cruise ship speaker can improve web skills
The best way to improve one’s optimism is experience with a lot of bad situations that you have been able to work yourself out of.
If you find that bad situations always or usually get the best or in this case the worst of you, you will be hard pressed to be an optimistic person.
However, if you have seen the worst and still made the best of the situation, you are headed in the right direction.
Bad situations turned into acceptable even better than expected results will produce a more positive outlook on life = optimism.
If you have had computer crashes more than once at very inopportune times and were able to make do, the next time it happens you will have a better attitude.
“Life” happens, The more it happens around you and the more you press on it regardless…the more optimistic you become.
Look for, expect, maybe even hope something will go wrong so that you can demonstrate first-hand how it does not get the best of you and you will certainly be considered an optimistic person.
In my next post, I will write about one such example I recently experienced.
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