Darren Hardy, publisher of Success magazine, has provided a concise article on the 6 preparation rituals he uses to achieve success in his presentations. These rituals are for preparing to perform a completed presentation and not a process used to develop the presentation which is another topic that will be covered in my blog. I agree with all of his performance preparation suggestions and especially endorse having a routine of your own to systemize your presentation preparation. I think his third recommendation to write down notes on the beginning of your presentation is ok but what is much better is to use memory techniques with particular focus on your start so you can get rolling and use the momentum to deliver your best performance. My observation is that even the most inexperienced speakers can perform much better and are more convincing if they memorize the key points of their speech rather than relying on notes. Most memorization techniques rely on location and visualization prompts (e.g. method of loci) but more complete coverage of that topic will be included in a future post.