Kenny Talks About : Visualising for a Presentation or Proposal

Do you sometimes wonder how some people can write a proposal so effortlessly that it seems to just stream out of their heads and onto paper?

When you get down to doing it, you get distracted (see my previous note) and the more you try harder mentally to tackle the task, the more your mind fills itself up with gibberish thoughts clouding even basic words from being put onto your writings. Do you realise at that point you may not be using your visualising skill properly and that you are directly thinking about the words and phrases to use rather than the actual concept of what you are trying to present?

It the same to the type of gibberish thoughts that fills your head when you are doing a presentation. In situation like this, once tends to be searching for the right words to say rather than be focused on the concept!

Visualising is a powerful tool.

Our minds see in pictures and it even comprehends words in the form of imageries. It's a clear message that can easily be understood and processed by your brain. We react faster to images rather than to words, simply because our mind has to "translate" those words into pictures first. With this basic understanding, it's easy to see why people who "try too hard" has more difficulty in getting his or her thoughts through in a smooth flow.

When I am in my "zone" (usually that means crunch time or last minute preparation of proposals), I would calmly sit myself down and just use a few moments, to "see" the actuall event or flow of activities in my mind. I will literally do a actual walkthrough of the entire scene from the point of arrival, the people I would see, the main event area, "looking" for each individual event elements as if I was really there.

I complete my visualisation when I can see myself going from the beginning of the mind "walkthrough" all the way to the end (or completion). This is the "solid ground" in which I will use to work on my proposal. As I put the description in writing, my mind repeats the scene and each image is formed into words.

It really helps.

At this point it almost doesn't matter if I get distracted in between, because I have a "pre-recording" of this flow in the form of images, I can always playback and continue my thought process.

It's the same when you walk into a presentation. Some people mumble and rehearse by reading words or a pre-written scripts. I'd say throw that away! Instead, use pictures in your heads to think about the concept and how the event flows... do a mental walkthrough. So, when you do present, you won't seem like memorising word for word but rather understanding what you see and repeating it to your listeners.

Interestingly enough, while writing this note, an entire mind projection of images appeared in my head, a bit like a soap-opera drama... ;-)