Page 24 - Tee Up Your Speech

Tee Up Your Speech: Golf is Like Public Speaking

Tip #21

Don't dwell

on what

went wrong.

Keep moving forward. We’re often
judged by how we deal with adversity.

In golf, it can be frustrating if you hit
your ball into the sand trap, water, or out
of bounds. Perhaps you had a poor
swing, and you hardly got any distance.
So what? Why complain about it? Go to
your ball or where you lost it and move
forward. It's more important what you do
next. If we focus too much on what went wrong, it will affect us on the next shot...and... who wants to
play with a complainer?

For public speaking, so many issues can go wrong. We can have a multitude of technical
difficulties or environmental conditions at the venue (too hot, too cold, too noisy, etc.) It's more
important to acknowledge the problem and quickly move on. Complaining to our audience makes
us appear less professional. Our audience will be more impressed with our flexibility and attitude
when dealing with unforeseen issues.

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