Next level communicators don’t cheat the game.
Next level communicators don’t cheat the game.
Humanly speaking, the most important thing about us is our habits. If you’re a Christian we would call these things spiritual disciplines, or practices, like bible reading, prayer, generosity and fasting (to name a few). Athletes talk about training, spending their careers running, lifting and paying meticulous attention to what they put in their bodies. Cut corners on nutrition, workouts or film study and it could make the difference between a good career or a great career.
I was reminded of this several years ago when I spent time with an NFL athlete, who not long after we hung out ended up in the hall of fame. This particular player had spent a few years playing with one of my favorite quarterbacks, so I could not help but to fan boy a little over how awesome it must be to share a locker room with this all world quarterback. “He’s had a few good years,” the player non-chalantly responded, “but it won’t last. He doesn’t study film.” I was shocked by his response, but boy did his words ring true. A few years later this uber talented quarterback, who had an amazing few year stretch of ball, was out of the league. And if what his teammate said is true, what did him in was he cheated the game.
I’m not here to talk to you about how long you should prepare for your messages, or challenge you on how to think about your study time. People are so different, with various levels of intelligence and capacity, along with different learning styles, attention spans and so on. But one thing is consistent with great communicators: They develop and maintain habits to keep them at peak preparation and performance. They don’t cut corners, and never cheat the game.
One of the great things about our field as communicators, is we can do this well past the age when most people retire. However, I’m in my fourth decade as a communicator and I’ve seen a scary trend- some of the world’s best communicators tend to decline and fall from peak performance during my season of life (I’m 52). Why is that? There’s many possible reasons like being satisfied with past success, the busy-ness of life and battling the growing reality of less energy each year. All of these issues and more can serve as huge obstacles to thoughtful preparation.
The temptation to cheat the game is not just something great communicators face, it’s a reality every communicator faces. What helps me stay on the path of diligence is keeping these four truths constantly before me:
People’s time is a privilege, not a right. Your audience does not have to show up. Like you they deal with so many distractions for their time, along with crises like a bad marriage, financial difficulties and unemployment to name a few. Every time I stand, especially on a Sunday morning at church, I look out on the audience and wonder how many are there who have a real good excuse not to be there. I’m not the only one sacrificing when I sit down to prepare, so are many of the people I’m speaking to. If they did their best to show up, then I should honor their time by being thoroughly prepared.
No one has a more important job than me, so take it seriously. As a preacher, I speak to the souls of people. Now tell me, who has a more important job than me? I believe in the dignity of all work, but I want you to think with me about what I’m saying and how it should lead to consistent, deep preparation. Doctors deal with bodies. And every time I go to the doctor I always look at the wall of their office because I want to know are they prepared? What schools did they go to? I read reviews on them because I want to know what other people are saying about them. Are they top tier, top quality? No way will I let a doctor work on me who cuts corners in their preparation. Now, don’t hear me as saying that all communicators should have a certain degree of education. I am not saying that (though I believe in education). I want you to hear “preparation”. If you are a preacher or minister of the gospel, you speak to souls, and no one, I mean no one, should be more prepared for their role when they get up to speak than us.
Be grateful not entitled. Speaking is pretty heady stuff. We are always getting complimented, sought out for advice and many times people stand in line waiting to take pictures with us. If we are not watchful we can find ourselves entitled, thinking we deserve certain things, and often the first step downward begins here. The opposite of entitlement is gratitude. Thanking the hosts publicly before I begin my message, writing thank you notes to the people who invited me to the event are huge steps away from entitlement and into gratitude. But I’ve also found that going out of my way to express genuine curiosity to the people sitting around me in the audience, or the production people in the booth, or the intern who picked me up from the airport as I probe them about their lives keeps me away from entitlement. Never forgetting from “whence we came,” will keep us from cheating the game. Hey that rhymed!
Remember, climbing is better for me than declining. I was with a group of people once when the subject of hiking came up. In our group was a doctor who observed that most hiking injuries occur on the descent, and not the ascent. In essence, he was saying going up is way better for our health than going down. When I have done the work of “going up” by forcing myself to “sweat” in my study, the residual impact on my life is comprehensive, as my character, intellectual development and quality of messages are all enhanced (among others).
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