Called to Speak

Source: New Hope Publishers

Called to Speak: Practical Tips for Women's Ministry Speakers and Teachers, by Edna Ellison and Linda Gilden
Publisher: New Hope Publishers
Publication date: January 2, 2016
Category: nonfiction, Christian, motivational, How-to/self-help
Source: I received this galley from NetGalley for consideration of a review.

Much like the last book I reviewed, Successful Women Speak Differently, Edna Ellison and Linda Gilden's book Called to Speak drew my attention because of life circumstances. As a teacher, I speak to groups of high school students daily, on an academic and personal level. Even though I've been teaching for twelve years, there are always ways to improve. Yea, yea, I know the subtitle talks about women's ministry, but I've often found that similar principles apply across the nuances of an overarching topic. At a basic level, speaking is speaking and teaching is teaching. So, if I had the chance to read a book on the topic, why not take it? And if it is as Gail Godwin said - "Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre" - then consider this part of my one-fourth preparation. Ha!

Written from a perspective of Christian principals, Called to Speak of course speaks to the need to cover all speaking preparation and activities in prayer and discusses how your relationship with God affects the what, where, when, and how. Each chapter speaks on a broader level as well. One of my favorite topics Ellison and Gilden discuss is purpose and passion. Your purpose is a specific topic, but it is also the fact that you speak for the benefit of your audience, not yourself. You need to have great passion for your topic and the people to whom you speak, or else your message will fall flat. I've heard adults say things like, "I didn't like English in high school, but my teacher made it a lot of fun." I guarantee that teacher was enthusiastic about his/her subject and loved working with teenagers. Passion/enthusiasm makes a difference. Ralph Waldo Emerson speaks to this point well:

"Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

Besides passion and purpose as my favorite part of the book, other topics of interest discussed are: partnering with people, personality and the public, paths and possibilities, practice and perseverance, and more. I definitely highlighted more than I typically do while reading Called to Speak - great resource for those who have already started down the public speaking path as well as for those headed in that direction.

Successful Women Speak Differently

Source: Amazon.com

Successful Women Speak Differently: 9 Habits That Build Confidence, Courage, and Influence, by Valerie Burton
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Publication date: November 1, 2016
Category: Christian, nonfiction, motivational, self-help
Source: I received this galley from NetGalley for consideration of a review.

Moving around in a familiar world made new, aka grad school, I found myself drawn to different topics. I watch my professors, how they choose their words and tone of voice, the level of professionalism they choose to maintain among each other and students, etc., and wonder if I would know how to speak, act, or sound if I found myself in a new place, job, school, social setting, or otherwise.

That's what drew me to Successful Women Speak Differently: 9 Habits That Build Confidence, Courage, and Influence, by Valerie Burton. I'm a talker, both verbally and written...I could text all day, write all night, and hang out with people in between. Unfortunately, I also have foot in mouth disease: Thought comes to mind, mouth opens, sound comes out, foot goes in, silence and regret reign. And I've always wondered what I can do on my part to improve the way I speak - whether it be to sound more professional or just to be more considerate.

Successful Women Speak Differently, shows how clear communication makes the difference in influence you have and favor you gain. A few tips given in the Amazon.com summary accurately state the main purpose of this book:
  * recognize the nuances in speech that can mean the difference between success and failure
  * increase your influence by changing what you think and say in critical moments
  * speak accurately about yourself so you don't sabotage your most meaningful goals
  * boost your confidence by making simple tweaks to your everyday speech

Based on Christian principles, Burton's book gives great explanation and examples of how words, tone of voice, and body language play more into how others read you than you know. For example, when I am personally invested in a topic, my voice tends to become passionately elevated - aka unnecessarily loud. My family points this out to me in various ways, funny and serious, but being my family, I ignore their comments. However, Burton has a section about volume of speech presenting a person in different ways in different situations, loud not being good most of the time. Open mouth, insert foot. Lesson learned. And hopefully less tasting of feet in my future.

Make Your Time Work

Working smarter, not harder. Exercise bike while
reading the homework I assigned for the next day.

If I had a dime for every time someone said to me, "I wish I could (fill in the blank), but I don't have the time," I could fund my current tuition with it. Most often the blank is the amount of reading I do. And usually the person saying this has things going on in his/her life that I wish I had more time for.

Everyone says "I don't have the time to..." about something at some point. The truth is, if it's important, you'll make the time. Our lives are easily filled with people, places, things (and that's a whole other conversation), so the only way anything fits in is if we place it there. Sounds impossible, doesn't it?

I've decided it's not always quite as impossible as we think. Going on a big trip to Israel this summer, I realized my husband and I needed to start exercising so we could handle the excessive walking the trip requires. But where the heck in my life of family, friendship, teacher, student, and church would I fit exercise?! But did I really have a choice?

There were some questions I had to ask myself. In my current season of life:
1. What do I HAVE to do?
2. What do I THINK I have to do?
3. What do I want to do?
4. What can I let go, cause I frankly don't care that much about it?

Everyone's answers will vary because it depends where you're at in life and your preferences. For example, spic 'n span cleaning of my house isn't even on my radar. If stuff is picked up and there's no obvious mold issue, we are good to go. However, I did notice two things in answering these questions that may apply more widely -  question #1 was a smaller list of items than I thought and question #2 was a larger list than it should be. And basically everything on lists #2&4, I can forget. Looking at my schedule, I placed the items from #1 and then fit around where I could items from #3. Yes, right now I do less of what I want than of what I have to, but I was able to fit in three hours of exercise every week!

And the big part to realize in all of this...if you still don't have time for something, then it's not as important to you as you thought right now. Life goes through seasons and things change. Don't give up on it, just put it aside for now. Quit stressing and keep your dimes!