Getting out those first few words

Even the most confident, charismatic speakers occasionally find themselves hung up on exactly what to say in certain situation.  After years of trying to figure this out, I came to one simple conclusion; being social is nothing more than practicing and connecting to that thoughtless space.  The best way to illustrate this concept is with the analogy of a basketball player. If I were a coach and I were to throw in one of my players  to where he hasn’t had the chance to practice shooting and warming up before hand, he is most likely to start off rusty by missing shots, miss-timing passes etc. Most of the time, he will eventually get into his game and start hitting those shots, and passes but first, he needs to warm up.

The mind works in the same way as the basketball player in that it needs to WARM UP before it fully syncs into the GAME.  By now, most readers will agree with me in that this is nothing profound. However, of all the mistakes and mishaps that can hinder your ability to attract, the biggest one is simply staying quiet and not actively being social. By not speaking, the MIND is PERMENENTLY BENCHED because it missed its chance to warm up. Here are a few techniques to help you warm up that social muscle:

Cognitive Warm Up #1

Real a book, article or magazine our loud.   PROJECT YOUR VOICE!  Try reading for 15 minutes.   Practicing in mirrors is always a BONUS.  Fact: You speak better after you have already spoken.

Cognitive Warm Up #2

Egnage in a debate about something you are passionate about with someone you know (family member, co-worker, roommate, friend). For the relationships sake, I recommend making this a friendly debate.  This will help get your mind going and articulate in words what you are thinking.

Cognitive Warm Up #3

Tell a funny or exciting story to a person or a group of people you know.  Your friends will  give you feedback about a certain story for later tweaking and this will help pratice engage groups of people.

These are just a few ways to COGNITIVELY WARM-UP.  As you can imagine there are a variety of other things you can do and I recommend you try everything to see what works best for you.