So how did you do? Did you see some improvement? I hope so, if you did, in fact, focus on just one thing you didn't like, chances are you made some improve, maybe it's not 100%. But you made some improvement. Now, if you didn't see improvement, typically that means one of two things. Number one, you try to fix five or 10 things you didn't focus on just one thing, and the mind scatters.
The second thing that might have happened is you try to focus on something that you just can't change it if you're 12 years old, and you want to sound like you have a big, deep old man voice. You can't really do that without sounding ridiculous. B you don't need to do that. There's nothing wrong with your voice. Right now. As long as people can understand you, and you don't sound scared.
Chances aren't your voice. is perfectly fine. You don't have to sound like your parents, or somebody you've seen in a movie, you'd have to sound like you, as long as it's you, that sounds interested and relaxed and not scared, tensed up and nervous and falling into a turtle shell. So here's what I need you to do now, I need you to do it. Look at the list of things you like, and how you're presenting. Look at the list of things you don't like.
I need you to practice again on video. review it again, figure out what you like, what you don't like. Now, here's the key. This is really the most important lesson of this entire course. You're not going to like this, but I'm going to tell it to you. It's not hard to do in the sense of learning how to dunk a basketball are learning how to be an Olympic caliber gymnast.
Those are hard things to do when I'm back To ask you to do is hard in the sense of like cleaning up your room, it's hard to get motivated to clean up your room, but we can all clean up our room. If we just focus on it and do it, Dell, it's done. So here's what I'm going to ask you to do. I need you to practice your talk again, on video. Look at it. And keep doing it until you like what you see.
Maybe that only takes one more time. Maybe it takes 10 times 20 times. But if you really want to be well prepared for this classroom presentation, this presentation to your chess club after school, whatever the presentation is, if you really want to be comfortable, you need to have a role model for yourself. I can't be your role model. Your parents, your teachers can't be a role model for this. You want a great role model for yourself.
Presentation it needs to be you. And that's why you need to practice on video. If you can give your presentation recorded on video and look at it and say, Wow, that's great. If I can come across half as well as that student I'll be the star of my entire classroom or my scouting trip or wherever it is, I'm speaking, that's where I need you to be. You can do it, you just have to put enough time into it. And this will get easier and easier and easier as you get older and you do this regularly.
And you'll get to the point where you really will only need to practice once on video, typically. But this is critically important. Most people don't most adults never do this because they're too lazy. Now is your time to build new strong habits that are gonna last you lifetime. It's going to help you not just for this course or not just for this presentation next week, it is going to help you for a lifetime. If you learn the discipline of doing this, again, it's not a hard thing to do.
It's just not something people like to do. People don't like to look at themselves. People that at every age don't like something about their face or their voice. But if you really want to be confident in any presentation, you need to know that you're coming across your best. One of the things that makes people nervous, standing up in front of the classroom, talking even to family members or friends. Is this idea of Oh, I don't really know how I'm coming across.
Maybe I look nervous. Maybe I look scared. Maybe I look uncomfortable. Guess what? You might actually look nervous, uncomfortable or scary. If you don't know how you're coming across, then you just don't know.
So chances Aren't you might actually look awkward or uncomfortable. You probably look in a mirror before you go to school in a day. Because you want to make sure some family member your mom or dad, they want to make sure you don't have grape jelly on your face. They want you to see that so we looked at a mirror. Before we leave the house quite often. If you're writing any sort of papers yet, you typically will want to run it through spellcheck or look at each word and do it yourself to make sure you're spelling things correctly.
Well, it's the same thing with your presentations. You need to practice it on video until you like it. So this is one of the few courses in life where you don't have to police the teacher. It's not about me telling you you pass or you fail. At this stage, it's not about Your teacher telling you you pass or fail. It's about you deciding if you pass or fail, because even at your young age, you've already seen speakers that you thought were boring.
Not very good. They began to fail. In your book, I want you to apply that same logic to your own presentation. Are you going to give yourself a fail? If so, that's okay. But let's figure out how we can make it better.
Keep practicing it on video, again and again until you like it. Once you've done that, you're going to be ready to give the best possible presentation you can on this topic. But if you haven't seen a video of yourself, that you like, then you're going to be nagged by doubts. insecurity is going to creep in to how you present and that's no good. So please do that. Now.
Keep practicing on video and two You like your presentation