Every month I will highlight an excerpt from the book.

February 2010 excerpt:  Pause

Imagine you are at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1863 waiting to hear President Abraham Lincoln's dedication speech at the Soldier's National Cemetery.  He begins, "Uh four score and you know seven years ago uh our forefathers basically brought forth upon this continent a new nation uh actually conceived in liberty and actually dedicated to the uh proposition so that all men are created like equal but now we are engaged in a great civil war uh testing whether that nation or uh like any  . . .

I have delivered that part of his great speech just as it is written above to a number of audiences.  They always laugh and come to the same conclusion.  This speech would not have the impact it has if he had delivered it that way.  

I invite you to read it out loud just as it is written.  You should notice something.  It is difficult to breathe, it is difficult to give words the emphasis they deserve, and for many, you may feel you are speaking faster than you normally do.  If Abraham Lincoln had delivered the Gettysburg Address in this way, he would have felt the same.  

How would his audience have felt?  Chances are there would have been at least two or three people counting the "uh's" or other filler words (actully, so, like) they were hearing.  Some of those in the back of the crowd would probably have had difficulty hearing parts of his speech because he could not have been breathing properly.  This would cause his projection to trail off.  Some would think he was talking too fast as they would have had trouble processing what he was saying,  Which means that many in his audience would not have heard these words, ". . .and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

I know you have had similar reactions when you hear people speak and it sounds like they are rambling.  There may even be times when people have had those reactions when they hear you speak.

If you want to influence others to take action, you need for them to get the idea of what you are asking them to do. In order for that to happen most effectively, you need to pause. The lack of pauses is the number one habit I work with people to correct.  Asking people to pause is also where I get the most initial resistance.  And yet, at the end of a group workshop or individual consultation, pause is consistently the biggest "ah-ha" my participants experience.

To be continued:

If you want to read more about Pause, please proceed to Buy The Book.