Talking out loud

I spent this past Saturday at TLI -- Toastmasters Leadership Institute. That's the annual all-day training for club officers. This year I'm VP of Public Relations for my club, Eagle Toastmasters, #3161.

One of the members of my club, Ute Brinkmann, was conducting a session -- Leading for Success; actually, she had to give it twice that day. She asked me to help her, by being a timer and giving her an introduction at the beginning of the session. She wrote the into, I just had to deliver it.

Ute is a real inspiration. She's always moving towards the next challenge. This session at TLI was a new step for her, too. She did wonderfully!

I didn't have much time to read the intro over, so I did the best I could. I was very nervous the first time -- embarrassing, considering I have my CTM.* I did a bit better on the second try. But still not very polished.

So what? I'm glad I did it. What it shows me is that you can't rest on your past achievements. The theme this year in our Toastmasters District is "But wait, there's more!" There's almost always more. More to get out of Toastmasters. More ways to learn and grow. Every achievement is a stepping stone to the next achievement.

As Susan Jeffers says in Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, it's normal to feel some fear every time you try something new. Interestingly, this time, instead of making me not want to repeat the experience (as in all my pre-Toastmasters speaking experiences) I feel inspired. I need more time in front of strangers -- that's the only way to lessen the fear. My Toastmasters goal this year is to compete in all the club contests (humorous, Table Topics, Evaluation, International).

Wow! 5 years ago I'd never have been brave enough to even think about competing. That's a big step for me.

But wait, there's more!

__________________________
* Competent Toastmaster; an achievement award given after completing the 10 speeches in the Communication & Leadership manual.