Posted by J.J. on November 28, 2008 under Presentations, Self development, Visual Thinking | 
I drew this when I was suffering from diarrhea few days ago. Had no appetite to eat and I laid on a couch and watched TV. There’s a cooking show was quite entertaining – at least I was able to distract me from my stomachache. I was watching Jamie Oliver at Home cooking show. After drawing it on a post-it pad, I finally figured out why so many people adored the ‘naked chef’ and I listed out few things that made him so famous:
- He has his own cooking style
- He’s down-to-earth guy
- Maybe it’s because of his not-so-pleasant-looking dishes
- It sounds tasty. He says “It’s beautiful” to his dishes all the time.
- He speaks funny Australian accent. That’s incredible mate.
- He cooks fast. It looks easy to cook but it’s really not.
I felt hungrier than I thought. Craved for more food but I couldn’t. Guess, it helped me to think of the next day, thinking I would recover in the next day. It also reminded me to eat right when I become healthy again.
Posted by J.J. on November 27, 2008 under Personal development, Productivity, Self development, Visual Thinking |
I would get nervous when I speak to a person or to a group of people for the first time. In my point of view, there are no actual solution to take nervousness down to zero. The only thing that matters – your experiences. The more you speak to others – the more you’ll get into the flow. In fact, I just discovered one quote from a speaker in a talk about Leadership Lesson from Gandhi, King and Ikeda in July 2007. Let me rephrase it again here:
“If someone is too focused on his topic when he’s making a speech in front of thousand of listeners, he’ll never ever think of becoming nervous.”
I remembered it. So, I drew this picture:
When I’m in the flow, I would be able to concentrate on the topic. It’s normal to get nervous, anxious, or having butterfly in your stomach. Hold it for few seconds, then start speaking to one of the audience. Focus at one audience. Get response for him (or her).
Basically, it’s less difficult if you confront a large group of people compared to a smaller ones. For artiste in a live performance, most of them had no difficulties belting their songs in front of thousand of fans in a concert. That only happens when the artiste has received good rapport from fans. It means that your speech content, materials, scripts and etc are fully prepared. Never abandon your homework.
Whenever you’re studying for an exam, preparing for a speech or presentation, then memorizing your facts, figures and theories are crucial for your success. Don’t ever forget to improvise them. Nervousness will be getting lesser if you spend more time and effort on improvising your work. Like a stage performer or a stand-up comedian, he need to speak to remember the lines, gestures, facial expressions and etc.
If you want to be good at something – start to work on it yourself. Dedicate more time on it.
J.J. Yong is a web publisher, blogger, entrepreneur, and science teacher.