Will You Ever Be Happy with Your Speech?

A few weeks back I attended the speech of one of my clients. We had been working on a 15 minute speech, everything from the content development to the delivery. Once he finished his speech, he came to me and asked, "So, how was it?" I could tell he was nervous about my response. He obviously was thinking about when he stumbled over his words for a brief moment, and when he moved too far away from the mic, and many other little things that went wrong. I told him he did great. Sure there may have been a few problems here and there, but he got a great audience response and right after a speech is no time to dissect the problems.

When you give your speech, you should immediately treat yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back, go out and get some ice cream, anything! But do not think about all the things that went wrong. No speech is perfect and you will never be 100% happy with your speech. You may get close, but something always could have been just a little bit better. Give yourself the time to be happy with your accomplishment. You can review it and do a postmortem the next day. 

Speeches are meant to be a work in progress. Timing can be perfected. Physicality can be improved upon. But the point is you did it! You were successful! No matter how many mistakes happen, if you get a positive audience reaction, you did a great job. Take joy in it. Then improve it tomorrow.