You don’t have to wait until the day you get an Oscar, turn 50 or receive the Nobel Peace Prize to hold an acceptance speech. There will be a thousand times before that when you have the opportunity to show gratitude for the shoulders that have carried you here, including your own. Furthermore, it is a good opportunity to practice for the day when you stand in front of the acting elite or the family and say thank you. Now you have the opportunity to practice, to get the ingredients right, giving the audience goose bumps, making a tear form in the corner of their eye and causing scattered cheers and shouts as you read peoples’ names from your place in the spotlight.
A good acceptance speech is humble but strong. You shouldn’t make the world think it’s because of them you got where you are. But it is important to thank them for believing in you and backing you in your struggle. Ingredients that are important to fit in there in terms of content are:
- Thanking yourself and patting yourself on the shoulder.
- Your family, if they have supported you.
- Your closest friends, if they have supported you.
- Your enemies that have spurred you on.
- God, if you believe there is such a thing.
Then there are quite a few proven tricks you can use to get the right feeling in your speech:
- Pause and look at the audience.
- Change the tempo, tone and volume.
- Excuse yourself to wipe a tear or catch your breath.
- Finish with a scream and raise your arms to the sky.
A good thing you can do is to study skilled rhetoricians in the form of politicians and actors holding acceptance speeches at an awards show, or other charismatic people who have held an acceptance speech. Think about what they say, how they move their body and hands and how they work with the eyes and facial movements.
Required time:
Four hours. Add two hours to write and edit text. But do not forget the two most important hours when you practice in front of the mirror to sync your body with the text and hopefully learn it by heart.
Cons:
People might think that you are self-righteous for writing an acceptance speech for no reason. But people can sometimes be boring as shit.
Pros:
By thinking about things and people to whom we are grateful, it often makes us become a more humble person. It also makes you think of things that are good in your life and it can make you look at your life with a lighter camera. In addition, you can make those around you happy when you read the speech. If those around you hear thanks linked to their names they feel appreciated and will be happy for days to come.
