As you embark on your journey towards becoming a brilliant public speaker, it is undeniable that reading practical guides, training, and diligent practice are essential steps to develop your skills.
However, there’s ONE crucial factor that significantly enhances your chances of truly embodying confidence, charisma, and authenticity in a public speaking scenario.
I am currently reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, a remarkable book that explores a systematic approach to cultivating positive habits in daily life while breaking up with bad ones.
Clear’s evidence-based framework emphasises the pivotal role of identity in habit formation.
In short, he demonstrates that the key to building lasting habits is focusing on creating a new identity first, because our behaviours mirror our beliefs about ourselves (whether consciously or subconsciously).
So, to transform our behaviours permanently, we must first redefine our identity.
Clear calls these “identity-based habits”.
But how’s this relevant to becoming a brilliant public speaker I hear you shout?!
Well this all holds significance relevance in public speaking.
Why?
Well, if you perceive yourself as a nervous and inadequate public speaker, then guess what?
That perception manifests on stage.
However, by embracing and adopting the identity of a confident, authentic, and captivating speaker you’ll have a much easier time of actually becoming this.
You’ll be pleased to know that identifying and changing limiting beliefs into positive beneficial ones is surprisingly straightforward.
As Clear points out, it involves two fundamental steps:
- Decide the type of person you want to be.
- Prove it to yourself with small wins.
All you need to do is consciously choose to identify as a brilliant, poised speaker who enjoys presenting in front of an audience.
At this stage, you don’t need any evidence to back up this new belief about yourself.
You just simply choose that this is who you are going to be moving forward.
In doing so you have created an identity shift which will then catalyse a domino-effect of positive habits: from thorough preparation and rehearsal to accepting opportunities for speaking engagements.
Each action works to reinforce your newfound belief in your speaking capability and confidence.
As you accumulate these small wins, your identity naturally aligns with that of the brilliant public speaker you aspired to become.
You ARE a confident, authentic, and engaging speaker because you chose to identify as one.
I’d highly recommend Atomic Habits not just for public speaking, but also for help with achieving desired results in other areas of your life.
It can help you transform into the person you want to become.
Personally, I can attest to the effectiveness of Clear’s approach, as it aligns closely with my own philosophy behind making meaningful changes to one’s life and self.
Even before delving into Atomic Habits, I had been employing similar strategies.
But I particularly admire and appreciate Clear’s clarity (pardon pun) and the methodical framework that he has beautifully created.
Here’s to becoming brilliant public speakers!
You can find out more about James Clear and his work here.
If you liked this article then check out ‘How to Present Yourself as a Confident Public Speaker‘ next.
If you haven’t done so already then download my FREE Top Tips for Public Speaking as your first positive habit!
Thank you for reading – I hope you’ve found this useful.
Let me know what you think of Atomic Habits.
Tilly x
This article may contain links to a book that I genuinely recommend and believe to be of huge value to anyone who reads it. If you act (i.e. make a purchase) after clicking one of the affiliate links, I’ll earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps me to pay my Empowered Public Speaking admin costs so I can continue to support you on your public speaking journey.
