Three Steps To Get The Most Out Of Toastmasters

by Promod Sharma, President 2011-2012

Goodyear Toastmasters is like a fitness club. It's easy to join but your progress depends on what you do. For best results

1. attend
2. participate
3. stretch

Attend

In the beginning, you probably intended to attend the regular meetings. If not, why would you join?

Life has a nasty way of getting in the way. If you let it. There's work. There's family. There's vacation. There are lots of reasons to miss a meeting. And then a second. And a third. Returning soon becomes more difficult than staying away.

There's one good reason to attend: to improve your skills in speaking and leadership. (Or is that two reasons?)

Participate

We have rotating roles assigned by our VP of Education. You'll start with the simpler ones like Crutchword Counter or Trivia Master. Eventually, you'll get major roles like Table Topics Master, Toastmaster and Chair. You can back out with advance warning but you're limiting your progress is if you do.

Our club is run by unpaid volunteer members. We need your help. As you help share the load, you build connections and make friends. You might decide to take additional responsibilities by joining committees. You might even run for club office.

Stretch

The good old comfort zone is waiting to trap us. We may improve our skills to a certain level and then get stuck. We're better but we've stopped growing. Maybe we keep using the same hand gestures. Maybe we avoid taking on certain roles.

As with muscles, we need to go beyond what we're already doing to get real results. We may not notice at the time but if you record yourself, you will see the progress.

You

Fellow members are here to help you with your goals. We can't unless you show up. See you next week!

Links

• 7 tips to a live motivated life
• Control the fear of public speaking
• The six basic fears according to Napoleon Hill
• A must-do for all speakers
• image courtesy of camrynb (Georgia, US)

Promod Sharma has (gulp!) missed three consecutive meetings due to extra workload at Taxevity. He's now ready to return.