Anyone who has given more than two presentations can remember sitting in a dankly lit office, behind a desk covered with research material. A blank stare upon your face as you gaze at the stack of information you so desperately want to pull into a first rate presentation. You hope for some spark of genius, yet all you get is frustration and probably a headache. You try harder and harder to pull together the words, thoughts and phrases to articulate your message, but your brain gives you nothing to work with.

Well, fear no longer for those days are over. Today you are going to learn a technique that will pull out those ideas into a form that allows you to 'see' your message in a natural flow. Once your see your message, writing that speech or presentation will come far easier than you ever expected.

I use this technique over and over again to create articles like the one your are currently reading. The only downfall to this brain web or inspiration web as I prefer to call it, is that I often get too many ideas and have to cut many of them out of the article I am writing. But that is ok, for that leaves me with plenty of ideas for the next article or presentation, all ready and waiting for me to call upon them in a moments notice. This even works for those times when you have only minutes before you have to stand before your audience.

Let's spinning a web of ideas. The tools you will need to create your web are a pen, paper, and a timing device. Larger paper is better, but standard 8 ½ x 11 paper will do as well. In the center of this sheet of paper, write the topic of your presentation and draw a circle around your words.

Now take a few deep breathes, and stand up, yes that's right, stand up. Hold your head high and look up at the ceiling. Throw your shoulders back, and puff out your chest proudly. And smile a really huge smile. The kind of smile you would see on the face of a child before opening that wonderfully wrapped present on their birthday or on Christmas morning. Feel those feelings, the excitement and the thrill of finding what is within the brightly colored wrapping. Breath fully and deeply while doing this. Open your mind - remember that for now there are no rules, no limitations. This is the time for no-holds-barred idea creation.

Now feeling those wonderfully energizing feelings set the timer for five minutes. Sit down, grab your pen, and begin to write. Write down every idea that comes to mind. Write fast; do not let your pen stop moving. Abbreviate so that you can get as many ideas down on your sheet as fast as possible. What you will find is that you will be writing one idea and BANG the next one hits. Then, before you finish writing that idea down, BANG another, then another and so on. Write every thought that comes to mind, filling up your paper. Don't be concerned with spelling, grammar or neatness. Make no judgements as you write during this five-minute period. Only record the thoughts as they come to you. Your end goal right now is a vast number of ideas and thoughts.

While you are writing, circles each idea, and connect related ideas/thoughts with lines or even arrows. Keep writing until the timer goes off. Then relax, sit back and review your inspiration web. Is it full of ideas? It should be. Did you make all the connections? If not make those obvious connections now, again using lines, arrows or whatever your are comfortable with.

Take a break, ten to fifteen minutes is a good period of time. During this break get away from your idea sheet, and take your mind off of it completely. Then come back and look at the page. By now a few main idea threads will become obvious on your web of lines or arrows. Identify three to five ideas (five maximum for the best audience retention) that you want to cover. Highlight or color-code them so they stand out on the page. Now you have your topic and speaking points. Your lines and arrows will guide you in your flow from one speaking point to another. I guarantee by this point your speech is taking direction in your head and you will be quite ready to begin putting it to paper.

Use this inspiration web technique anytime that you need to give birth to some creative ideas. This technique will work not only on coming up with speaking points for your main topic; it will work in problem solving, product enhancement and innovation as well.

Think Successfully & Take Action. Tracy

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