#145
Purpose: The purpose of this project is to reflect on your growth during the completion of an entire path.
Overview: At a club meeting, present a 10- to 12-minute speech to share your experience completing your path. Use this as an opportunity to reflect on how far you have come, summarize the skills you have learned and developed, and to celebrate your achievements. Your speech can be humorous, informational, or any style that that appeals to you and supports your speech content.
Speech:
Steve jobs once said: "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards."
Fellow toastmasters and my dear guests, who knew that one fine day, picking up a random magazine, browsing through it casually would make such a tremendous difference in my life?
Well, I certainly didn't. I still remember it was around august 2019 ...yeah... I found this TM magazine lying around in my Dad's house. I picked it up wondering what 'toastmasters' meant. I had no idea
at the time I was thinking oh maybe there's a community where people give toasts to one another. Of course it wasn't anything like that.
I read a couple of articles. I was inspired because the content revolved around becoming a better public speaker and that was definitely one of the things I wanted to cross off my bucket list. And this was on my bucket list because I was super shy and nervous to face a crowd back then. I'm so happy now that I can say 'back then'.
Well, other than being inspired, I was a wee bit intimidated, because at a toastmasters meeting you have to give a speech and there'll be someone to count ur ums and ahs. was like whoa that's tough.
So there was this new thing in my head and I was ruminating - hmm should I give this a shot?
Should I join? I wasn't someone known to take action if I had cold feet. I chickened out.
A whole year went by. I remained the same sad soul. I consoled myself by saying 'eh no harm no foul.'
Fast forward to October 2020 - by then I was used to this pandemic routine - work from home, chores, I had started my blog that year so that was going on.
Something reminded me of toastmasters - I don't remember what it was but I do remember finding the courage to sign up on the website - I chose Wordsmiths bcoz the meetings were held on Saturday evenings - perfect!
I signed up and in just a couple of days, I got a call from ABC and he said 'Hey I'm the president of Wordsmiths, I would like to talk to you about joining our club'
There's this famous quote by Maya Angelou which goes:
"People will forget what you said they may even forget what you did but they will never forget how you made them feel"
That rang true that day. ABC spoke to me for nearly 45 minutes. I still remember that conversation: he gave an analogy to people joining the club and treating it like a gym membership - wherein folks would attend the initial 2-3 meetings with full gusto and then just give up. He then spoke about his own experience with TMs and it seemed quite relatable and I was pleasantly surprised. When you don't know anything about the clubs and TMs - having the president of the club call you and talk to you for 45 mins narrating his experience - that was really something - that conversation inspired me and I knew I had to give this a shot.
I joined the first 2 meetings as a guest and I had no idea what to expect. I was told I wouldn't have to speak at all. So in the first meeting I attended with full enthu I had my video on, I was smiling and then came table topics - I didn't even expect to be called forth and I was given a topic and I went blank. I simply refused to speak, I said no like 4 times. I was so taken aback bcoz I was told I wouldn't have to participate and I don't deal well with unplanned things.
The first meeting was a total disaster. After that embarrassment I just shut off my video and I was thinking whether I can even overcome this fear, whether I should even join if it's gonna be like this. Here again the same Maya Angelou quote applies - this time around it was with XYZ - immediately after the tt incident she msgd me on zoom private chat - cajoled me - saying hey it's ok no ones gonna judge you here - give it a try. This is a safe place and the more you try, the more you get better at it and so on.
That encouraged me to come back in the next meeting. 2 meetings in, I was hooked. I paid the fees and on October 24, 2020 - I had my first TM meeting as an official member.
The next step was to give my first speech. Luckily the 600th milestone meeting was just around the corner and there was going to be an icebreaker contest. I decided to participate. I never knew how much I wanted to express something and tell others my story. It was such an exhilarating experience.
That right there made me want to give more speeches. I finished level 1, spoke about scrabble, then subsequent levels with more specific projects tailored to my chosen pathway - dynamic leadership - I got the chance to explore my leadership style, communication style, mentoring, negotiating skills, dealing with change and more.
As I progressed through the levels I started evolving too - or at least I hoped I was - initially I had started out with an utterly formal tone and my speeches were more like a news report
they contained more facts than a story. Then in the ‘understanding your communication style’ speech I adopted a casual style and that was much more well received and I also enjoyed talking in a laid back manner as I'm doing right now, I hope.
Those were level 2 and level 3. I went on to level 4 and there was an elective right up my alley - 'write a compelling blog.' What luck! That's exactly what I had spent my entire 2020 on! I wrote about a hundred posts and in april 2021 I started writing about my toastmasters experience and the exciting journey that I was on. it turned out to be a 2-way street - because in my toastmasters speech I was able to talk about my blog and in my blog I wrote about my speeches. What a fun coincidence! My blog is called 'Riff-lections' and that's also the title of this speech and bcoz it ties to the project title which is ‘reflect on your path’ and through my blog I did kind of reflect on my entire journey in toastmasters.
And that brings us to the current state - level 5 - just one more project to be completed and that's it - I'd finish an entire pathway!
What an eventful 8 months this has been! I have thoroughly enjoyed giving speeches, taking up roles - timer, tt master, evaluator, participating in the story contest, tt contest and last line contest. And also as part of the excomm I am grateful for having gotten the opportunity to be the sergeant at arms. It was more like a zoom master role in this remote setting but nevertheless it was fun.
I just want to share with you all what my life looks like now - at work I no longer become nervous if I have to speak impromptu to a bunch of people - I am much more confident in meetings and I look forward to getting opportunities to lead whenever and wherever possible. All thanks to toastmasters. Any feedback I need to give to someone my brain goes "ah lemme employ the sandwich technique "
Toastmasters has just become an integral part of my life - even when I go on evening walks with my husband sometimes we give each table topics and have fun with that and if we discuss an interesting incident that happened at work I go "Hey I can convert that into a speech!"
Other than my transformation into who I am today, i've met so many wonderful people here
I am grateful I am happy. I am excited to fuel my wanderlust in my speaking journey - for me the theme of the day connects at a personal level - it has taken me from point A to point B wrt my confidence level and worked wonders.
It is said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step and this entire experience honestly feels like just the first step. I can't wait to see how the future unravels. I think my biggest reflection and realization so far has been that - I actually like talking, emoting and sharing my experiences with others. Who knew?
I hope that through toastmasters and especially wordsmiths, all of us find similar realizations that lead to a more fulfilling life.
Thank you, over to you TMOD.
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