One of the most awkward feelings in life is when you’re listening to someone on stage and they completely run out of words to say. They completely draw a blank and just stand up their saying ummm.
To me this moment is a combination of two things. 1. A lack of preparation and 2. A lack of depth of knowledge. If someone truly understood what the subject matter that they were speaking about, they should be able to speak to it with no issues. They should be able to think of real world example on the fly.
Preparation
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. The best speakers have pages upon pages of notes for each speech they give. They run through a ton of content, and condense it down to a few main points with supporting points. They have done so much prep and have so much content that they don't feel the need to stick exactly to the script. They prepare, prepare, prepare, then the day of, they just let it flow from the heart.
They can afford to do this because they put in the work beforehand. When we attend meetings and its our turn to speak but we don't have anything to say, it shows that we really haven't put any thought or effort into the topic that is being discussed. Frankly, it shows that we don't care.
Input More than you Output
A while back I started writing a weekly newsletter called gems along the path where I would share random parables and reflections i had been thinking about with my friends. I spoke to one of my mentors when starting and told him about my intentions and he told me, if you're going to be writing, you need to increase your reading. You need to input at least five times what you're outputting.
Professors need to cite like hundreds of articles and books for a single article. Abdul Elsayed’s book is filled with citations and that’s a political memoire!
Running out of things to write is akin to being on stage and running out of words. If we’re constantly learning and reading we should always have something to write. When we run out of words to say or write, it shows a lack of depth of our knowledge. You see how I just repeated this point I already made, its ironic, but I’ve run out of things to say so I’m repeating myself - an example of lack of depth right before your eyes.
Share Experience to Increase in Experience
In 2017 I planned a trip to spend a couple weeks in Saudi Arabia and then 4 months in Pakistan. Before I left, one of my friends gave me a huge journal. I was excited. I wanted to write and tell stories the way he shared his experiences with me. He was able to take me through a full journey with highs and lows through his words. He had me on the edge of my seat with every story he told. I wanted to get to that level of storytelling, so I asked him how to be a better storyteller.
He said to me that that your mind is like a sponge. In order to gain more new experience, knowledge, and wisdom, you have to share it. Once you squeeze the water out of the sponge, you can add more.
By writing down the stories, parables, lessons, I've learned from various sources into one master database in Notion, I can quickly review and refresh my memory every so often about all of those stories. Then when I need those stories I can easily pull them up. For more on this, check out Tiago Forte’s Second Brain Method.
Write it Down
One thing that has helped me in having less of these mental blocks is writing things down. Journaling, writing newsletters, sending my friends stories that happen on whatsapp, these things make it easier to remember in the future. When it comes to stories, the whatsapp story is one of the best forms of developing content. You can literally just forward the whole string of messages to another person or chat once you do it the first time. If you are not satisfied with the way you wrote initially, you can learn from the reaction you get to the first time you tell it and adjust in another chat. Then see that reaction and then adjust again. For those dedicated to mastering the art of storytelling, this is a must. Getting feedback is the only way forward.