University of Hawai'i Maui Community College Speech Department

In the Vision Speech you will present a speech that is a vision of the person and the speaker you want to become, only you will speak as if you already are this future self with the advanced speaking skills that have allowed you to succeed. The speech will be 2-4 minutes. This is a goal-setting technique that is very successful. If you want to be a teacher, excellent mother/father, Best Selling Author, Talk Show Host, News Anchor, Small business owner, Congress person, doctor, nurse, lawyer, marine biologist, police officer, firefighter, CEO, Boat Captain, pharmacist, MCC Valedictorian, hotel manager, counselor, information technology specialist, CPA, musician, world class surfer, Mayor of Maui County, whatever it is you want to be you can walk into the vision for this speech and present as the future you that you want to become.

You could be the greatest teacher in the world if that is your goal, and you could also be the greatest speaker in the world. Maybe you are accepting an award for Excellence in Education and you tell your audience that you are fortunate to have excellent communication skills that have allowed you to become the best educator in the state/nation/world/universe. You will want to talk as if you already are the person you will become. This is not a speech where you will talk about the person you want to become or the vision you have of the person and the speaker you want to become. You will present the speech as the person you "have" become using the speaking skills or talking about the speaking skills you have. For your vision speech you will "try on for size" the person and the communication skills, as if they were a "vision outfit" of the future you. You will walk into this vision for the duration of your speech or the entire day if you want.

You could tell us how charismatic, powerful, sincere, and interesting you are as a speaker and as your future self. You could tell us of your most recent speaking engagements. You could tell us about the Audiences' responses at these fabulous speaking engagements. Make these the most perfect speaking situations you can think of. Tell us of your next speaking engagement(s). There is no limit here as to the person or the speaker that you will portray to us. Push the envelope. Do not limit your self. Take out all the stops and create the person that you will become and the best speaker/communicator of all time that has helped you become you.

This is not an impromptu speech. This speech will take a good deal of preparation. I will look for creativeness, and your ability to deliver your message to your audience using the delivery skills that this future self will have. The key is to have fun and create a vision of the person you want to become with the speaking skills you want to have. Don't limit yourself.

The goal is to create the vision of the person that you will become and include superior communication skills. Once you have the vision you can then live into that picture as if it is already true. It is very likely that you will need to make up things that haven't happened yet about yourself, that you want to come true. These untruths may make you sound like the greatest speaker of all time or the greatest Doctor ever to grace the operating room at Maui Memorial...Hey great. If you develop a picture of your highest self it becomes much more likely that you "live into" that self. So, don't limit yourself. You can create the vision of the person and the speaker that you want to become and you can live into that vision. Be specific, use your imagination, be creative, and HAVE FUN!! You can tell us where you (as your future self) went to school, where you work(ed), where you live(d), about your family, etc....

You will present a vision speech of who you imagine or envision the person you will become. This vision could be based on specific goals or even dreams of who you will become or want to become.

Please contact me if you have any questions of if you need clarification.