Hello, readers. After a very long break, I am delighted to resume writing my posts. I don’t really have any excuses for my prolonged silence. Yes, I’ve been occupied with various projects and studies, but, at the end of the day, the truth is that I succumbed to procrastination on a few writing days. Those days turned into weeks, which eventually turned into months…
I suspect that I’m not in the minority, and I must say that this experience has given me insight into how some blogs come to an end. Drawing a comparison to running, it felt like I stopped when I shouldn’t have, as resuming my writing feels more tiring and painful than pushing through those extra miles to reach a goal (although I wouldn’t know how to define a goal, especially when it comes to this blog).
As my Toastmasters journey continues, I have been reaping a lot of the benefits from being an active member. In my last post, I spoke about how taking a club officer role helped me in working on my leadership skills. In this post, I would like to share with you my experience from entering Club Level, Area Level and Division Level competitions. A few years ago, the idea of entering a speech contest would have terrified me since I was never comfortable speaking in front of people. Competing in a speech contest was a goal that I wanted to work towards but one that I felt was of my reach, however thanks to the confidence that I built in delivering speeches at my club and thanks to the warm support of my club members, I was able to finally reach this goal.
In a past post, I wrote about my experience in joining a Toastmasters Club. As I am writing this post, around a year and a half has passed since and there is a lot that I have gained from my involvement in Toastmasters. I have enjoyed it so much that I am now part of three clubs (yes, that’s a lot of time committed to Toastmasters). For those of you who have never heard about Toastmasters, you can refer to my previous post where I provide a general overview but to sum it up, it’s an organisation that helps its members develop their presentation and leadership skills.
What I would like to focus on in this post is the valuable experience that I have gained from taking the club officer role of president at one of my clubs. Every Toastmasters Club is managed by designated club officers who help in the running of the club by taking on core responsibilities that are essential for growing and maintaining a healthy club. These individuals are ordinary club members who put themselves forward at the start of an office term (more details can be found here) and are elected via the club’s officer election process.
While my first year at Toastmasters was focused on my presentation skills and on working on my speeches, my second year has been focused more on my club officer role. I have seen a lot of seasoned toastmasters who are just happy focusing on their speeches and avoid taking club officer roles due to several reasons (time commitment, additional responsibilities, etc.) but I think this is a big mistake as there is so much value from being a club officer. I believe that by taking on a club officer role, members can truly focus on harnessing their leadership skills. In this post I am summing up some of my key learnings:
It is very common to hear that public speaking ranks high among the list of things that we might fear. Some studies have also looked into claims about the fear of public speaking ranking above the fear of death[1]. The purpose of this post is not to discourage you with more facts about how much we dread talking in front of people but is meant to give you some ideas that you can act on so that you can overcome your anxieties and become a successful speaker. This post is a summary of what I have learned from reading books on public speaking, observing and learning from professional speakers but more importantly things I have learned from my own mistakes.
This is a post for those people who are considering joining a Toastmasters club. If you are not familiar with Toastmasters, I would summarise it by saying that it provides a structured format and friendly environment for people who want to improve their presentation skills. Toastmasters also allows its members to get hands-on experience in organising and conducting meetings so time management and hosting skills can also be developed. This official Youtube video provides a general overview of how these sessions are planned and what responsibilities each member can take during the events. I only joined two months ago and I would like to share my experience with you so that you can evaluate if this is something that you might want to get involved with.
TheFinanceNerd 