The world has changed in the past three months. As we return to work in the new “normal” we can begin reframing these changes positively. I have not posted during this period because I needed to listen deeply to what those changes meant to me and my method of public speaking. I had to dive into remote working and conferencing and find out through trial and error how my method “Speak the Rainbow” applied to the virtual world.
The lockdown in France gave me time to experiment online. Most days and nights, I spoke and connected colorfully with people around the globe via Zoom, Skype, Teams. I will write another time about all the connections I created during this period. But today I am sharing a story which has made me think about how I will communicate going forward.
One confinement to another
After two months of confinement in my flat outside Paris, I was called to join my partner who was helping friends maintain their eco-community, lacontie, in the countryside (the environment is an essential activity IMHO), so I went. There I began another period of confinement surrounded by cool wooded forests and green grassy fields filled with flowers. It was an amazing break from my urban setting.
When I returned to Paris, I immediately resumed the routine I had set up during my confinement there: starting the day with a quick run along the bike and pedestrian pathway near my home. I set out for a run and was jogging along, music in my ears, when a cyclist rode by yelling at me. As he pedalled away, I saw him yell at another jogger in the distance. Then, I noticed the problem. We were both running on the side designated for bicycles.
Yet, I had always run in the correct lane and now I was clearly in the wrong. How had this happened? I changed sides, but I continued to observe in the next few days that others were making the same mistake. Then it hit me that during the month I had spent in the countryside, the city had reversed the cycling and jogging lanes. The only sign of this change was the darker patch around the symbols on the ground where the city had removed the white markings of a bicycle.
Looking at these markings as I ran, I noticed that the darker patch looked like a heart. This made me happy. I started looking at the path as designed that way to protect the pedestrians in a cocoon of love.
This shift in perspective increased the positive vibrations my brain was sending to my legs, heart, and lungs. This made it easier and more enjoyable to run on the path than before the confinement. Today when I go jogging, I see a path lined with hearts all the way along the river, and it fills me with joy and energy to run on this path.
By seeing the change and reframing it, I increased its value and motivational power.
This is what motivational and inspirational speakers do. They see the change that is happening or has happened in society, business, our environment or world, and they reframe it in a new more valuable and inspiring way for others to see too.
Our world has changed dramatically in the past few months. How are you going to reframe your experience of these changes so that others can see them from your perspective? Are you going to resign yourself to the new “normal” by speaking about it as normal? Or are you going to reframe your vision so that is fresh and offers insight that others might not see?
The world has changed. The world is changing. That is normal. Study what’s happening and try to reframe it. People will listen and react to your unique perspective on these changes when you reframe positively what you see.
Colorfully yours
David