Amplify your presence - release the energy in your communication

Just sit for a moment and relax. Take a couple of deep breaths. Now, try not to think of an elephant. 

And here's something else to contemplate. Picture a square circle. Try harder, and make an effort. As you've probably realised, both exercises are by nature impossible. Often though, we put our efforts into tasks very much like these. We focus our energies on impossible goals or where the means to accomplish our goals are entirely out of our hands. 

Communicating with presence

In my experience of helping executives master the art of communicating with presence (which is more than the proverbial public speaking skills), we often put too much effort into the skills, the storytelling, the slides, and the body language. We want to know what's right. Where should I move to? How should I sit or stand? What should I do with my hands? What am I trying to achieve here? 

Thus, we often think of effort as straining, forcing, or pushing, but what if there is no straining, force, or pushing?

What if the power source of change is within us?

The push to a greener planet

The same pushing happens with climate change and the move to New Energy. And whilst there is no doubt of the urgency for change, what if we could inspire people to see the need for change for themselves? What if we help people use the right effort through the right view?

When you see that putting your hand in a flame is painful, you don't need to strain to keep yourself from doing it. 

We know what's right

Right effort means simply being present. It means being here, staying here, and seeing what's happening now. It's not about trying to control or bring something about, like straining to get everyone in the room to go along with your view. 

Right effort is naturalness. The naturalness of movement, the naturalness of thought. It's the naturalness of becoming this moment; this is the energy within the art of public speaking. And this energy can be present in our communication that drives the change in attitude, behaviour, investment and infrastructure building to facilitate the transition. Right effort is different from how we usually understand effort.

At the moment, we just want control

Usually, we try to control or be different, try something new, improve the situation, or improve ourselves. Human history is filled with this kind of effort. 

And here we are with our improved human world that we've spent much time and energy working on. It's working out well for us, right? Not.

We've improved the rivers, the lakes, the land, our society, and our ways of living to the point where we now wonder if the human race will survive. We keep doing the same with ourselves, constantly pushing for more. Gosh, I know that desire myself.

First, The right effort is cutting off the fragmented and fractured way of communicating or speaking. When we're in such a state of mind, we see things needing manipulation and control. We need to move to energise our way of communicating wholly through presence. 

How? What's the solution, then?

We must first see what we can control and what we can't. Otherwise, we'll waste our efforts trying to do the impossible while ignoring what is easily within reach.

It is tapping into a new energy source within us when public speaking, in a meeting or in a 1-2-1 conversation, thus taking in the whole scene being presented to us, at that moment. 

It is drawing energy from within and using this to connect with others to drive change, putting effort into influencing the moment-to-moment states we can affect, thus helping us all to have the right view of the importance and the urgency of moving to a greener planet.