Ninjutsu has taught me many things over the years and among them is the value of thinking about and doing things differently. This has really helped me have some unexpected successes in my life. Let me share one of them with you.
Earlier this year I was invited to make a presentation to 600 people at a sales conference in Macau for a major international company. I am a reasonably experienced public speaker but I had never presented to such a large audience before. I was nervous. During rehearsals the night before I was using some Ninjutsu breathing exercises to calm myself. They worked superbly in terms on calming me but the feedback I got from the organisers was that I was flat. What to do? It seemed that if I didn’t calm myself I would be too nervous up on stage but that if I did calm myself through breathing exercises I would be boring and flat.
Chewing all this over that night in my hotel room, it came to me. I needed to approach it differently. I didn’t need to calm myself to beat my nerves. I needed to boost my confidence to beat them. I hatched a plan and following morning I put it into action. I employed a different Ninjutsu breathing exercise – one designed to energise and arouse my senses. By the time I stepped on stage I was only a little bit nervous but I certainly wasn’t flat – I was like a raging bull.
The audience – in a stupor itself after a dull presentation from the speaker before me – was not just ready for some energy; they were eager for it. Almost instantly the audience tuned into my energy and within minutes they were eating out of my hand. I had fun and I spent the rest of day shaking hands and being told I was a brilliant presenter. It got to the point that the praise was embarrassing.
The Ninjutsu breathing exercises helped but it was the ability to think about the problem differently – to arouse myself rather than calm myself – that saved the day. I attribute that ability directly to my Ninjutsu training because Ninjutsu is all about using unconventional strategies to win against the odds.
I love the way Ninjutsu makes me more effective in all aspects of my life.
