Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot

Duke University’s legendary basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, or Coach K as he’s often called, famously came up with the dictum, widely practiced in sports, of “next play.” If you miss a shot in basketball, swing and miss in baseball, or throw an interception in football, you should quickly reset your mind and keep going. Focus on the task at hand rather than on what just happened.

Be obvious’ is the most powerful, creative mantra that there is,” improvisation expert Dan Klein told me. “When you’re trying to be original, you sound like everyone else trying to be original. But when you’re obvious, you’re yourself. And that’s what’s genuine.

Fifth, we must leverage story structure to make our ideas more intelligible, sharper, and more compelling than they might otherwise have been.

Fourth, we must listen deeply to what others are saying (and perhaps not saying) while also tuning in to our own internal voice and intuition.

We don’t often allow ourselves to just live without worrying about how we’re doing. But we should.

The next time you feel a negative emotion like anxiety, remind yourself that you and the emotion are not the same thing. Imagine you were someone else observing you experiencing the emotion.

The advice I’d give to students is it’s not the mistake that matters. It’s your recovery that you’ve got control over.