Persuasive Speech Examples

Persuasive Speech Examples

Persuasive Speech Examples


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Our persuasive speech examples show clearly just how you can get your persuasive message across. That is they sum up a particular viewpoint and give good reasons why something should be believed or achieved.
Naturally there are thousands of different reasons why you want to persuade people to a certain point of view. If, then, you order from our persuasive range you will find words that will help you coax and cajole others to share your beliefs. Even better you will find that our speeches all end with a persuasive poem that really sums up your speech in a very unusual way. Our persuasive speech examples indicate just how professionally our speeches are written. They show how arguments are used to persuade and give a clear example of how we can help you if you have to give such a speech.

 

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The secret of life is death

Summary

This speech persuades an audience that by fearing death they are stopping themselves from living a full and rich life. It is suitable for any speaker to give either to students or to a general audience. It could also be used by a member of a group such as Toastmasters.

Sample

Is there one subject more unwelcome than death? Is there one word more feared and reviled, at least in Western Society? Death is the grim reaper, the final countdown, the end of life. Our death is a subject with which we are distinctly uncomfortable. It is final and absolute. The prospect of dying too painful to even think about. So our best solution to this uncomfortable topic is not to think about it, mention it, or even deal with it. Perhaps, instead, we should think about it and what it means in our lives.

“You’re a long time dead,” as they say in Ireland. “Live for today, be happy if you can”. We don’t deal with death until we have no further option, the loss of a loved one, an acquaintance, a family member. Perhaps we think about it when we reach a certain age, and perhaps we are confronted with it when serious illness strikes. The truth is even if we feel mortal then that moment passes with our recovery. We almost want to believe that we are invincible and will live forever.

Our death is the single most unwelcome and feared event in our lives. What though if we were wrong? What if we have been looking down the wrong end of the telescope? What if we have let that fear of death control our lives? Might that fear prevent us from really living and celebrating life for what it could be? Isn’t it true also that many people are dissatisfied with their lives? This is not dissatisfaction based on lack of possessions or money. This is an empty life and a lack of meaning and depth in our day to day existence.

We know there is supposed to be more to life. We know there should be. We know in our hearts that our struggles to survive and to accumulate, power or riches, do not make us happy. We know too that people die unfulfilled, with many regrets and all too soon life is over. We know too that suicide rates are higher than ever before. We know that depression increases with the onset of middle age.

Yet our death is the single thing that is guaranteed in life. The same thing applies, though the time frame may vary, to every ‘living’ thing. Pity the fruit fly, then whose life cycle last about one week. Are we envious of the oak tree, then whose life span extends to a matter of hundreds of years? Probably not, is the answer. Who wants to live forever?

If we were honest, those poor folk of fiction doomed to eternal life, seem very tired with the whole process. The fact is we are all going to die and that death will be the single most important even of our lives. Not only that, we are going to have to deal with the death of grandparents, parents, siblings and even our children. How can it be that we discuss death then only in hushed fearful whispers? Why is death our taboo subject and our greatest fear?

Analysing that fear helps us understand the nature of our reticence. Although half the world for a start doesn’t fear death in the way that we in the West do. Eastern religions maintain a belief in reincarnation. They don’t believe death is the endgame. Whether we accept a traditional Christian viewpoint or not, death in these terms is not seen as the end of anything other than a spell in this life. In a sense such a death is a rebirth and as much a reason for celebration as anything else. After all, this would at least imply another “crack of the whip,” so to speak.

Nevertheless such a rebirth, if possible and even probable doesn’t alter the fact of our death and the end of our time on this earth. This moment is for everyone involved a deeply transforming process. The many wonderful people who work in hospices and witness death on a regular basis, give many fascinating accounts of different deaths. They see and hold the hands of people who are afraid to die, as well as those who are prepared. They see those who are reconciled with the world and those who have things left unsaid or undone. It is clear from these experiences that the act of death and the manner or our dying has much to teach us about our lives. The very least of which is the chance to make our peace, to say our farewells, and to organise our affairs.

The remarkable fact is that dying can teach us about living. We are used to thinking the other way around. Perhaps we should ask ourselves why we should be so afraid of the prospect of our death. Of course we perceive it as a final act. Whatever we think about the afterlife or the absence of one, we can agree on that finality. Yet those who do not believe in their hearts in an afterlife or rebirth, are filled with uncertainty. That results in a fear of the unknown. Isn’t it interesting that we don’t seem to be remotely preoccupied with where we were before we were born?

If we are afraid to die however, is it not true to say that we must also be afraid to live? In the same way that our fear of death, when we examine it, is essentially this, a fear of losing our ego. That is the thing which we have been clinging onto since we were old enough to understand that we were alive. The result is that this fear dominates our lives. We not only refuse to talk about it, we shudder at the thought of it.

No wonder we find the reality so hard to deal with. No wonder we try and hide those who are dying away in hospices. We are terrified and as a result we are unwilling to live. We cling onto ego and we define our lives through possessions or so called success and power. Even though we know that these things bring us no comfort at all and are nothing more than an illusion.

The real life is the one that has our death at its head. It is the one that dares to live fully, to engage in experience and to learn and to grow. It is one that is filled with happiness and lived in the moment, knowing that there is no other. It is a life that has no fear of love or intimacy. It is one where we do not cling to others or old habits. It is one in which we learn to let go of the ego and become ‘selfless’.

Death can transform life. It is a fact that if we accepted it, embraced it, were not afraid to discuss it, our lives would be much richer. We would feel stronger and if we were not afraid of such a loss of ego, what could stand in our way? All fears stem from this fear, which is in essence a fear of the unknown and of nothingness. We stand to lose nothing and gain everything.

If we tried to move away from our fear – through understanding learning and reading we would find that there is a place where people who love life and all it has to teach us, do not fear death. They see it as a natural progression and even embrace it and give it its rightful place in our lives.

The fact is that many of us live in a culture that celebrates worthless and pointless values. We live in a constant denial of the fact of our death. We allow ourselves very little preparation. We need to demystify death not to deny it. We need to make it a part of our lives. To do that means accepting our own religious beliefs in the afterlife or studying the religious beliefs of others in the hope that we too can find acceptance and peace of mind.

When we learn to accept that, we might learn to live without fear. Our lives have been moving towards this point. Life is a preparation for death. All of us will go there one way or another. If you had the choice, and the supreme privilege of this life is that you have: which way would you choose? Would your life be a happy fulfilled one until death or a fearful one because of death? It’s time we faced our fears and made death a part of our lives.

Why are we so afraid of death?
Why do we try to hide?
Especially those with no belief
In life on the other side?
Death is a part of living
That we must accept if we
Are to have peace and contentment
Because can’t you see
If we live with fear all the while
It must affect our own lifestyle
We substitute peace of mind
For money and power and we find
That life is not as it should be
So accept death and you’ll feel free.

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Time can heal if you let it

Summary

This speech persuades your audience that time really can heal if we leave ourselves open to its balm.. It is suitable for any speaker to give either to students or to a general audience. It could also be used by a member of a group such as Toastmasters.

Sample

We would be nothing without the experiences that form us. Both the good and the bad etch themselves into how we see and feel the world. If we are lucky, work hard and learn our lessons then, hopefully, the good outweigh the bad. We learn that the world is an exciting but also a dangerous place. Certainly most of us have had our fingers burnt at some time or another. That is, bad things have happened to us during our lives.

They range from the physical scars we bear from cuts, breaks, illnesses and diseases that strike us down sometimes without warning. They are the accidents from simply falling over or from going head to head with a car. They are the psychological scars from tragedies such as bereavement or divorce. We often say that given time, we will recover. We will get better. Things will improve. Time, we say is a great healer.

Time itself though if we think about it, is indifferent to our various crises and celebrations. Time, we seem to have universally agreed is a unit measuring the distance between two events. The hours, weeks, months and years themselves do not do anything. It is how we fill our time that makes it productive, or wastes it. Different people in the same period of time will do very different things. One might write a masterpiece, another might embroider a quilt. One might do nothing but watch TV. The same amount of time has passed but with very different results. It is up to us to give the time value and meaning.

When we suffer an injury, we know that as humans, we will repair to a certain extent over a period of time. A bone that is broken will set, and a cut will heal over and scar. Yet time alone does not do everything. Isn’t it true that a bone needs to be reset properly? Isn’t it true that a cut needs to be disinfected? If infection sets in, the only thing that time will do is cause more pain with, possibly, more serious consequences.

Before we get too hard on poor old time surely we should examine this from the point of view of the spirit of the saying. After all what we are suggesting is that the longer we are from a painful incident in our lives, the less painful and raw it will be. Even the cynic must agree, that a period of time changes perspective on many events in our lives. When we have clamed down and distanced ourselves often we find our initial reaction hard to understand.

Then again many who have experienced trauma such abuse, divorce, or betrayal will testify to the fact that years later, nothing has changed. Victims of abuse carry the scars and effects of their trauma for years and even lifetimes after an event that happens in childhood. Who could say the mothers and families of the “disappeared” will feel better in time? What does time do for the families of those who are abducted and murdered?

Yet all of these people in some way or another are seeking closure. They want to be able to put the abuse behind them. They want to be able to bury their family members. They want to see those responsible brought to justice. They will not forget but they will be able to get on with their lives. For these people however as sad and tragic as these events can be: time has clearly not moved on. They are still living the events of a particular terrible period in their lives. That particular time has, in essence, stayed still.

Some victims find coming to terms with their abuse and their abusers so traumatic that they seek refuge in substance abuse in order to block these things out. Years later, seeking help, removed from the blocking effects of the alcohol or drugs, the abuse rises again to the surface. Time, can only heal if we help it. What is important is what we do with or in that period of time.

We have to find a way to move on from that event. Whatever the incident is, be it a mugging, accident, betrayal or abuse, if we are still there in our minds, it is as if no time has passed. Daily we are reliving the same day or period of our lives. In some way we have an imprint indelibly left in our minds. Some are able to accept the hurt and move forwards. They get back on the horse so to speak, or they find something else to occupy their minds with. They move to a different time and yes the vitriol in even the most heated and hateful of arguments does seem to lessen with time, even if the pain remains.

How many times have you apologised for something you said in the heat of the moment? At the time you were angry, but now you feel you have calmed down. Time has passed and by apologising you have in a sense moved with it. With your apology accepted, everyone moves forward. Yet if you had not apologised, you might still be turning it over and over in your head. You would be reliving the day until the moment when you “make good” what has been damaged. Then and only then can we move on.

Isn’t it true to say then that those who can heal or move on along with time, get better? Of course it is! If the world is full of one thing, it is survivors. This is not to say we don’t bear the scars and have flashback to that time. Can you honestly say you haven’t reddened at the though of some past indiscretion now long gone?

One way to stay firmly locked into an awful time, is to stay miserable and complain about how unfair life is. There are those who let the whole event organise and run their livers. They become a shell host for the unpleasant past. They are unable to talk about or to be anything else. The resulting feelings of unfairness and bitterness continually rub them until they etch their way into them. These people are not only stuck in the past, they won’t move forward and let time help them. They keep thinking about how awful it was and relive the same moment over and over.

Surely if time can offer us the present and the now, which is far removed in distance from the event, then we should grab it with both hands. We should say, “Hold on there time, this time, we’re coming with you’. This is not always as easy as it seems. Removing yourself from being a victim and forever tied to the perpetrator or incident is difficult. It is more so the longer you have let these feelings become you. Many people need and use professional help, therapy and counselling to try and deal with their feelings.

The fact remains that we need to move on. In doing so we heal and in leaving that time behind we can begin to thrive in the time that is now. In order to do so it may be necessary to get things out into the open, to find a way to talk through the past. This is not denying these things happened, it is affirming however that you are not just that person in that moment in time. It is affirming that you are more, that you are released.

Some people go on for years not understanding how to move into the ‘now’ time. Dealing with the issues is like sterilising the cut. It treats the wound so time can heal. Once this is achieved, the injury recedes into the past. You may always hurt. You may always bear the scar of that time but through time and the now, you will know that there is more to you than that. The moments from the past won’t matter. Who you are now is a different person and time, yes time can do that, but only if move with it.

Time heals, or so we are told
But only if we let it
Otherwise we nourish our wound
And simply cannot forget it
Whatever the injury, sorrow or pain
That we suffer deep in our hearts
Will keep us just where we are
That is until we try new starts.
We’ve got to move on whatever that takes
Put the past behind, for our own sakes
We’ve got to try therapy, counselling too
Whatever we need to help us get through
So don’t let time and your world stand still
Time really can heal if you have the will.

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