You can give someone a wonderful gift in the plastic bag from the store. That’s fine. But you can also take that gift, remove the price tag, wrap it in pretty paper, craft paper, recycled paper, homemade paper or ordinary paper, decorate it with your art, your kids’ art, post cards or ribbons or whatever, attach an engraved card, a homemade card or even a Hallmark card. Which gift makes a memorable impact?
You can tell a teenager not to drink and drive. Or you can tell that teenager about your 10-year-old cousin who riding his bike in his neighborhood and died from being hit by a drunken driver. Which message is more powerful to that difficult target audience?
You can think about writing that book, starting that blog, training for the triathalon, adopting that child or sailing around the world. You can (correctly) decide that you don’t have the time, you have too much to do, you’re too old or too young, or you don’t have enough savings. Or you can begin the process, one small step at a time, always moving forward. Which project is more interesting to you?
You can go through the motions, read from your slides, tell an old joke and call it a day. Or you can minimize the text, tell some stories that drive home your point in unexpected ways, involve yourself personally in your message and get your audience intimately engaged and it turns out they want more of you. Which presentation really matters?
You can live your life following the rules, doing what other people expect you to do, going through the motions, and living for the week-ends because at least you have a job. Or you can decide what it is you really want to experience, start to live that way even though you’re not really sure you’re doing it right. Fail and fall short of your aim again and again because there is no real role model for what you want. And each time you learn something, you get stronger and become this fascinating person in the process of living your dream. Which life do you prefer to live?
Aristotle said (it is said) to the effect of Excellence is not an event; it’s a daily habit. At Mixonian Institute we believe that the pursuit of excellence is a worthy endeavor for all of us. That’s why we teach presentation skills, public speaking, media savvy and leadership. The world really does need your brilliance, today.
