A new theory of mind, proposed by Professor Andrew Budson and his colleagues in 2022, further articulates what the neuroscience has been telling us for some time, and what I have been proposing in this blog for almost as long – and yields a surprising insight for anyone who wants to speak powerfully in public.

According to Budson, what we experience as conscious thought is actually just our mind remembering what our unconscious has already done. In other words, our conscious awareness is always a half-second behind the reality we are living in. It feels as if we’re making decisions in the moment, but in truth, the decisions have already been made. Consciousness, the study suggests, is a kind of memory system – a playback of actions and calculations our unconscious mind has already performed.

You can see this principle at work in sports. When a tennis player returns a 120-mph serve, there’s no time for conscious deliberation. The player’s body simply knows what to do. The same applies to a jazz musician improvising, or a surgeon navigating a complex procedure: peak performance happens when the conscious mind gets out of the way and lets the expert unconscious take over.

Public speaking is no different.

When you stand on a stage, your conscious mind is too slow to manage every gesture, phrase, or audience reaction in real time. If you rely on that part of your mind, you’ll constantly feel like you’re half a beat behind – remembering what you just said rather than focusing on what’s next. That’s why speakers who haven’t fully prepared often describe the sensation of feeling out of connection with their bodies, struggling to stay present.

The antidote is rehearsal.  Not the mechanical kind that locks you into a script, but deep, embodied practice that transfers your material from the conscious to the unconscious mind. Rehearse enough that your talk moves from memory into muscle, from thinking into knowing. Once it’s there, your unconscious can run the show with precision and grace, freeing your conscious mind for what it’s best at: awareness.

That’s the paradox of mastery. When you’ve done the work, you no longer need to think your way through a speech; you can feel your way through it. You can make eye contact. Respond to the audience’s energy. Pause for effect. Be fully, unmistakably present.

As Budson’s research reminds us, consciousness may only be remembering what the unconscious has already done – but that half-second of delay can be the space where magic happens. It’s where you connect, improvise, and bring your authentic self to the moment.

So do the reps. Prepare until your message lives in your bones. Then, when you step on stage, trust your unconscious to carry you—and allow your conscious mind to enjoy the memory of a performance already beautifully underway.