Unlock your presentation with the power of intention

If you sometimes struggle with creating presentations, you can overcome obstacles with the power of intention exercise I learned from my friend Elizabeth Clearwater of Santa Fe, N.M.

Elizabeth Clearwater

One time, when I felt overwhelmed by starting to design a customized writing workshop for investment analysts, Elizabeth suggested I work through the process that I describe below.

1. Write down your intentions for your audience.

In other words, what do you want your audience to take away from your presentation?

For example, I wanted them to

• Feel that I appreciate and respect their time constraints, the need to use jargon to communicate with fellow professionals, their market expertise, and lack of writing training.
• Receive useful before-and-after examples to show what they could do better

2. Write down your intentions for yourself.

Here’s part of what I wanted:

• To feel that my knowledge is helpful and respected
• To draw out from the students the reasons why it’s important to write more clearly and concisely

After I wrote this out, it was easy for me to create an outline for my presentation. If you try this, I hope you also find it helpful.

If you’re in Santa Fe, N.M., you can see the power of intention in action because my friend Elizabeth uses this process to prepare for her Ceremonial Song Circles.

Edited October 2, 2011