How can I master the art of speaking with conviction?
Life experience can be a greater teacher and catalyst than any book read.
This is part 2 of 4 of a series called “Sharpening the Blade”
In case you missed it, here’s part 1.
You don't need skills to speak with conviction.
You need to have an impactful experience in order to gain conviction.
I gained conviction when:
I realized I had a friend that was sexually abused
I watched my parent's marriage fall apart
I saw how destructive pride was
I saw how powerless a parent can feel when their child, born with a debilitating disease, struggled for years, and passed away at 2 years old
I saw how broken one can get after being abused, taken advantage of, and beat down over and over again
I saw how damaged someone can become because of years of neglect and rejection from family and friends
I saw how hopeless people can become because of the lack of encouragement
I saw how depressed people got when they had no vision
I lost all hope and meaning and wanted to commit suicide or run away to start a new identity, new life... or at least escape the one I had
My best friend died of heart failure when we were only 14
I can speak with a lot of conviction regarding these experiences and the conclusions I've made about life because of them. You cannot 'fake' conviction. It is there when it is there, and it can't help but come out when the chance is presented.
Being able to articulate, enunciate, project, story-tell, and knowing how to use pacing and tone, on the other hand, are all skills that would amplify the conviction you wish to portray.
This answer was originally published on Quora and had over 8,000 views.
I have 500+ answers on Quora and will be curating, IMO, the best answers I’ve written here for your convenience. All my Quora reposts will have this section for transparency and context, original content will not have this section.
After 10+ years of blogging all over the internets, I’m currently working on a book! If you resonate with my writing, you can sign up to get my book updates here.
When’s the next post coming out? I publish weekly on Sundays at 12pm Pacific (3pm Eastern, 3am Singapore, 8pm UK)