Tag Archives: preparation

Preparation 12 — The Big Picture of Preparation

Preparation 12 — The Big Picture of Preparation

The height of preparation is staying in practice because we’re always improvising when we perform, when we don’t get better we get worse, and no matter how hard we try, we can ‘fake’ being prepared but we can’t fake having put in the time and effort to become great at what we do.Continue Reading

Preparation 11 — The Best Preparation Is Staying in Practice

Preparation 11 — The Best Preparation Is Staying in Practice

One thing most clients come to me looking to learn how to do — which historically has been and remains the ideal ‘thing’ knowledge and skill in Rhetoric allows us to do — is deliver or engage in anything they’d like with *extemporaneous excellence*. Getting good at that takes *practice*.Continue Reading

Preparation 10 — There’s a Rhetoric to Preparation

Preparation 10 — There’s a Rhetoric to Preparation

We cannot rightly or fully prepare for anything requiring Rhetoric if we don’t understand and apply the Rhetoric of the mediums we are using — both in our final performance, and in their use in *the act of preparation itself*.Continue Reading

Preparation 9 — Our Beliefs about Our Preparation Are Part of Our Preparation

Preparation 9 — Our Beliefs about Our Preparation Are Part of Our Preparation

Our *beliefs* about our preparedness can impact our delivery just as much as our actual efforts to prepare. Cultivating our beliefs can rightly be considered a part of our preparation for that reason, and is why I deliberately included our beliefs about our preparedness in what makes us authentically unprepared.Continue Reading

Preparation 8 — Thinking Forward vs Thinking Backward

Preparation 8 — Thinking Forward vs Thinking Backward

We tend to crash when not looking ahead, back behind us, or down at a map.Continue Reading

Preparation 7 — We Can and Do Prepare Poorly

Preparation 7 — We Can and Do Prepare Poorly

If over-preparing is *doing too much*, preparing poorly is *doing the wrong things*. Unfortunately, the wrong things done in the right way don’t become right along the way, making it just as bad, if not worse. Continue Reading

Preparation 6 — Being Over-Prepared

Preparation 6 — Being Over-Prepared

Being over-prepared is having put any time and effort into preparation that either is not worth its corresponding return-on-investment, or actively detracts from our ability to perform.Continue Reading

Preparation 5 — What Being Unprepared Looks Like

Preparation 5 — What Being Unprepared Looks Like

Being unprepared means believing we lack some crucial part of the circumstantial equation needed to prepare or engage with an audience. Being *genuinely* unprepared is distinct from dreading something so much that we rationalize away our believed ability to accomplish it in order to better live with ourselves and our avoidance.Continue Reading

Preparation 4 — Preparation Defined

Preparation 4 — Preparation Defined

Having already gone over some basic strategies we can take when we’re unprepared — embodied in my phrase “When we can’t deliver, decline or delay — it’s time we considered being prepared more broadly. This will help make things clearer before going into what it means to be authentically unprepared and not needlessly nervous about a Rhetorical engagement.Continue Reading

Preparation 3 — Delaying When We Can’t Decline or Deliver

Preparation 3 — Delaying When We Can’t Decline or Deliver

I usually split our options of what to do when we can’t deliver into two because we won’t always have the option to decline, or it isn’t always worth taking. In those cases, *delaying* is our only other option — if we’re not willing to deliver *poorly* for having been unprepared.Continue Reading

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