PREPARE!
Last Thursday I took my 7 year old granddaughter, Sofia, to the Ellensburg Rodeo to see her first "slack", the qualifying rounds for the hopeful cowboys & cowgirls. We sat very close to the area where they prepare for their events - a pen that is full of men and horses. It gave us the opportunity to see just what they do to prepare for their 4-12 seconds of triumph or failure in the arena.
Some prepared by jumping up and down on the soft sand to get the energy into their joints, some talked to their horses, some put baby powder on their hands so the rope would not stick when they sweated in the heat of the adrenalin rush, some were sitting on their horses in a focused meditative pose, some loosened their wrists by swinging their ropes around in tight circles above their heads (we ducked!). All were doing some or all of these. Like actors in the Green Room backstage before a show, they were preparing for performance.
As presenters, we, too, need to make a conscious preparation for our performance. We need to do some focused stretching and breathing exercises, we need to warm up our voices, we need to remember that the focus should be on our audience - not ourselves, and we need to prepare to deliver a bright note of inspiration and engagement. And then, like those cowboys, we will go on - bringing our very best to share with our audiences.
Oh, yes - Sofia and I are ready to go for a ride ourselves!
If you would like to see a few warm-up exercises, click here
If you would like a list of our new Fall Workshops and programs, click here
Last Thursday I took my 7 year old granddaughter, Sofia, to the Ellensburg Rodeo to see her first "slack", the qualifying rounds for the hopeful cowboys & cowgirls. We sat very close to the area where they prepare for their events - a pen that is full of men and horses. It gave us the opportunity to see just what they do to prepare for their 4-12 seconds of triumph or failure in the arena.
Some prepared by jumping up and down on the soft sand to get the energy into their joints, some talked to their horses, some put baby powder on their hands so the rope would not stick when they sweated in the heat of the adrenalin rush, some were sitting on their horses in a focused meditative pose, some loosened their wrists by swinging their ropes around in tight circles above their heads (we ducked!). All were doing some or all of these. Like actors in the Green Room backstage before a show, they were preparing for performance.
As presenters, we, too, need to make a conscious preparation for our performance. We need to do some focused stretching and breathing exercises, we need to warm up our voices, we need to remember that the focus should be on our audience - not ourselves, and we need to prepare to deliver a bright note of inspiration and engagement. And then, like those cowboys, we will go on - bringing our very best to share with our audiences.
Oh, yes - Sofia and I are ready to go for a ride ourselves!
If you would like to see a few warm-up exercises, click here
If you would like a list of our new Fall Workshops and programs, click here
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment