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Believe it or not, preparation is a better determinant of presentation success than knowledge, experience, or even talent. The best presenter is almost always the presenter who is the most prepared. Even so, there are a lot of conflicting ideas about what constitutes thorough presentation preparation.

So what exactly is thorough preparation?

Here are seven straight forward tips to increase the effectiveness of the time you invest in your practice.

1. Practice Delivery Out Loud. Practice is NOT mentally rehearsing your presentation on the drive over to the presentation or even thinking about your presentation while tossing and turning at night. Both of these are something, but not practice. A lot can happen between thinking about what you want to say and actually getting the words to come out of your mouth coherently. If you don’t actually practice speaking out loud, when the time comes, you may struggle to articulate your mentally well rehearsed thoughts. To the audience, this struggle will appear to be lack of preparation.

2. Try to Conduct Your Practice in a Situation Similar to the Real Speaking Venue. Whenever possible, conduct your practice in a situation that closely mirrors the real presentation. For example, if you will be speaking in front of a large group in an auditorium or large conference room, try to practice in a large room filled with as many audience recruits as possible. Why? Research indicates that if your practice closely mirrors your real presentation, once you are in the actual presentation your brain will think you have done this before. Besides practice, the next most important ingredient in your success is experience.

3. Practice in Front of Real People. If you can’t find any audience recruits at work, ask your spouse, best friend, or if all else fails, your pet to listen to your presentation. Interacting with a live audience is an important part of your practice. It helps you not only rehearse your delivery, but gain experience reading and reacting to the silent messages your audience is sending you about their understanding, their likes, and their dislikes.

4. The Mirror is Your Friend. Even after you’ve practiced in front of an audience, continue to rehearse in front of the greatest critic of all, yourself in the mirror. The mirror is a WONDERFUL if underused presentation practice tool. It will allow you to see and hear your delivery live and make decisions about how to enhance your style. Remember, when it comes to practicing your presentation, the mirror really is your friend.

5. Practice From Beginning to End Without Stopping. Practice all the way through the presentation without stopping–even if you make a mistake. Most presenters have a tendency to stop their practice each time they make a mistake. Besides reinforcing this negative practice, when you continually stop and start over you get very good at the beginning of the presentation, but can’t deliver an effective conclusion because you’ve rarely made it to the end of the presentation. As the second most remembered part of your presentation, it is important to have a strong, well-rehearsed close.

6. Practice With Your Props. If you are using visual aids such as a PowerPoint slide show, make sure you practice with your slides. Visual aids of any kind add another layer of complexity to presentation and require practice to use effectively. Practicing with your slides will help prepare you for the things that inevitably go wrong and help you avoid unprofessional behaviors such as not knowing how to advance your slide show or how to put the slide show in the proper view for display.

7. Do it One More Time. After you feel you’ve done it well in practice and are happy with your performance, practice one more time to make sure your success wasn’t just a happy accident. All in all, depending upon you and your content, you may need to practice your presentation delivery out loud 5 to 10 times. Yes, that’s right, you might have to practice out loud up to 10 times, but don’t worry, your audience’s thundering applause will make the effort worthwhile!

Valentine’s Day is coming up and you are looking to get her a perfect gift for this one special night romance. It is important to find the right present that fits her style and ideas. Depending on where you guys are in the relationship, there are different type of gifts to consider. I’ve combined a list of the top 10 awesome Valentines present ideas for her.

1. Valentines’ flower is obviously one of the best choice no matter how serious or new the relationship is. Make sure you go with red roses and not other colors like white or yellow. A nice little teddy bear along with the flowers will make it a simple but perfect gift for her.

2. Diamond rings or earrings are very special for this type of occasion. Women love diamond because it is beautiful and it also represents that your relationship with her will last forever. Depends on how long you guys have been together, spend accordingly.

3. Chocolate can’t be forgotten during this special event. Not only chocolate is a symbol of the Valentine’s day, but also taste good and enhance the mood significantly.

4. Women’s dresses or lingerie is really good Valentines present ideas. Buy her something sexy to wear on this day and both of you guys can have a great time.

5. Ipod touch from Apple is next on the list. You should get her a red one or a color and design that she likes the most.

6. Women’s design handbag will definitely be one of her top choices. Women love handbags so why not give them what they want? Perfect colors for this season are red, metallic or jewel tones by designer brands like Coach, Marc Jacobs, Stuart Weitzman and Kate Spade.

7. Heart pendant is great because you can remind that special love one in your life that you love her. She will be happy with this perfect Valentines present.

8. Romantic Bath & Spa kit is another common gifts for her on Valentines day. A large variety of products you can choose from are warming massage oils, rose scented bubble bath, succulent scented candles and more! This can set up the mood perfectly for a beautiful Valentine’s evening.

9. Ugg boots are perfect for this romantic winter walk on the street. Toast up her tootsies in a fabulous pair of Ugg boots and you’ll be surprise how much she would love it.

10. Lovely makeup set by Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex and the city. The signature fragrance is a blend of musk, orchid, apple, lavender and amber. It is especially suitable for casual wear.

The question is: are toys really the right kids Christmas presents? The simple answer is a resounding yes.

Welcome to the age whereby your kid’s eyes are a little more inquisitive and they are, in general, far more savvy of the world around them than we ever were as kids. Their minds are being shaped by everything around them at an alarmingly fast rate, and it’s important to make sure that those surroundings enhance and promote good character traits.

Creative Development

Since the beginning of time, children have loved toys, and of course in more recent times, they love to play video games. Whether you are talking about childhood in your grandparent’s time, your time, or today, imagination is still the greatest gift that we can give our children, and toys are of great assistance to the creative development of any child.

With such an abundance of toys on the market, it gets harder each year to choose which are the best toys for our little ones. The first place to start would be to ask your child to write a Christmas list. Go over the list and fine tune it to ensure that as well as having entertainment value, “want” value and that it will make your child extol your praises to all their friends, that everything has a positive learning, or playful, experience. Avoid buying anything with an implication of violence or negative influences – traits which have unfortunately made their way into some of our children’s toys.

Promote Healthy Competition and Creativity

Contrary to popular belief, video games do have the capacity to offer a very positive learning experience if they are chosen wisely. They have the ability to promote healthy competition and creativity, and some online games offer your child the ability to make friends with other players around the world.

While there are those that frown on kids video games, remember that the skills gained by the player are transferable into everyday life. Competition, creativity, persistence, social skills, determination, turn taking and patience are all skills we want our children to learn, and why not kill two birds with one stone and teach these skills via a medium your child is keenly interested in? After all, isn’t the first vehicle of learning for a child through play? I guess video games present the same vehicle, albeit for today’s child.

Toys and games are terrific kids Christmas presents because they also promote sharing whilst attaining personal enjoyment. Some toys, like educational toys, are primarily offered to promote learning, while others promote creativity and problem solving. It’s really quite amazing how we can align many toys to the building blocks of life with a little imagination. A karaoke unit, for example, may be instrumental in helping a child to overcome shyness, while a Barbie doll will allow a child to venture into the depths of their own imagination.

It is essential that you follow any age recommendations given by the manufacturer, as these are included for the safety of your child.

Never forget that one of the best presents you could ever give your kids comes in the form of unconditional love. While it’s not something we can wrap up in pretty paper, and it can’t be tangibly seen, it’s one of the most powerful kids Christmas presents that can be felt.

Hey… don’t forget the batteries!