WEBVTT - Practice the tricky part

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>tip is to practice the tricky parts. Whenever you are

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<v Speaker 1>getting ready for a meeting or a speech, or an

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<v Speaker 1>interview or any sort of performance, think about when you

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<v Speaker 1>are most likely to stumble, and focus on that. Your

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<v Speaker 1>practicing will be a lot more effective and efficient than

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<v Speaker 1>if you keep running stuff that feels easier. Many years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>when I was studying the piano more seriously, one of

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<v Speaker 1>my teachers asked how I was practicing. I mentioned playing

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<v Speaker 1>through my next performance or competition piece, and when I

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<v Speaker 1>came to a rough part, I'd go back over that

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<v Speaker 1>a few times. He paused and asked me, why do

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<v Speaker 1>you even start at the beginning? Why not start with

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<v Speaker 1>the rough part. It's a good question. The goal of

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<v Speaker 1>practicing anything is to get better at it. If certain

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<v Speaker 1>parts of anything are harder for you than others, then

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<v Speaker 1>you need to spend more time on those. If you

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<v Speaker 1>just go through everything in sequence, you will get better

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<v Speaker 1>at all of it, which is great. But the parts

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<v Speaker 1>that are rough might not get enough attention to bring

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<v Speaker 1>them up to the good parts. And if you have

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<v Speaker 1>limited practice time. This will mean you are spending a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of time on things that really don't need as

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<v Speaker 1>much polishing. I certainly keep this in mind with my speeches.

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<v Speaker 1>I speak to lots of different groups, but different groups

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<v Speaker 1>want me to speak for different lengths of time and

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<v Speaker 1>to cover different material. If I have let's say twelve

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<v Speaker 1>main chunks of material I talk about, someone who wants

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<v Speaker 1>a twenty minute speech might get three to five points,

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<v Speaker 1>and someone who wants an hour long speech would get more.

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<v Speaker 1>Depending on the group, I might need to change one

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<v Speaker 1>of those chunks, perhaps to focus on a certain problem more,

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<v Speaker 1>or to give different examples, so that material will be

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<v Speaker 1>less familiar to me than the other stuff I'm talking about.

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<v Speaker 1>So rather than run through a forty five minute speech

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<v Speaker 1>four times, I might run through the actual speech twice,

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<v Speaker 1>but repeat the five to ten minutes of updated material

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<v Speaker 1>eight times. That takes less time overall and means I'm

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<v Speaker 1>more fluid on the stuff that would have been choppy

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<v Speaker 1>in the run through condition. Now, I know that not

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<v Speaker 1>everyone does a ton of public speaking, but you probably

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<v Speaker 1>do something that is public facing repeatedly. Maybe you need

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<v Speaker 1>to give tough employee feedback from time to time. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>guessing you can praise people easily. That is not particularly hard.

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<v Speaker 1>You do not need to practice your praise multiple times,

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<v Speaker 1>but it would probably help to think through how you

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<v Speaker 1>will say more challenging matters and to actually hear yourself

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<v Speaker 1>say those words multiple times so you can deliver them

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<v Speaker 1>in a confident, but encouraging and helpful way. Or maybe

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<v Speaker 1>you make sales calls. There are certain parts of your

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<v Speaker 1>product or service that sell themselves, but there are often

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<v Speaker 1>tough questions about something that maybe isn't your favorite part

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<v Speaker 1>of the product either. Those are the answers you need

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<v Speaker 1>to practice repeatedly to make sure you are telling a

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<v Speaker 1>story that you believe in and that makes sense to

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<v Speaker 1>you and so it sounds authentic. You want to make

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<v Speaker 1>sure you know how those words sound so you don't

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<v Speaker 1>flinch or anything ridiculous like that when you are saying

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<v Speaker 1>them for real practice The tricky part. We all have

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<v Speaker 1>limited time. Most of us don't practice our various skills

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<v Speaker 1>merely as often as we should. Practice is something that

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<v Speaker 1>is important but not urgent, easy to chuck when life

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<v Speaker 1>gets busy. If we are going to carve out time

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<v Speaker 1>to practice, we want to use that time as efficiently

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<v Speaker 1>as possible. I will admit that it is a lot

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<v Speaker 1>more fun to practice the parts that are easy. The

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<v Speaker 1>reason I was playing through my piano pieces is that

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<v Speaker 1>it's a lot more fun to sort of get in

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<v Speaker 1>the flow than to bang out a bad measure over

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<v Speaker 1>and over again. But I also think it is fun

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<v Speaker 1>to be really good at something and to perform well.

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<v Speaker 1>Practicing the tricky part is what gets you there. In

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<v Speaker 1>the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's

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<v Speaker 1>to making them of our time. Thanks for listening to

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<v Speaker 1>Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you

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<v Speaker 1>can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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