I went to a local Toastmaster’s meeting. It was convenient - within a block of where I work, and from noon to one. So, I didn’t have the excuse of inconvenience.

I have been meaning to check out toastmasters for a while. I want to improve my speaking and presentation skills and they seem to be a great venue for doing this. So, I bit the bullet and went.

It was a lot of fun!

And also very scary.

There were only 7-8 people there. All very friendly and supportive.

One of the exercises they do at toastmasters is “Table Topics.” This is where someone has a topic they speak on, and then call on 3-4 people around the table to talk further on some aspect of this topic for a minute or so. This is to help improve your ability to extemporize or improvise on your feet. They asked me if I would be willing to participate in this, and then informed me that “everyone else did on their first day” - well with that kind of peer pressure how can I say no?

So, the topic was “Self Development” with other speakers called up to talk on “The law of attraction” and “Faith” it got around to me. I was asked to speak on the quote by W. Clement Stone: “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

So, I gulped a big breath of air, stood up, and walked to the lecturn.

Looking out at the people sitting around the table, searching for something witty and brilliant to say, I started talking. I have no idea what I said. I know that I said “Uh” at least once because they have someone assigned to keep count. I also repeated myself saying things like “the . . . the . . ” and so on. Finally, the green light came on signalling that I had talked long enough. I could sit down! but only if I could pull it all together in a nice, concluding statement.

Big problem - I had no idea what I had been saying!

So I said something like “I believe that whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve - except for maybe a good conclusion to this talk - my mind is blank!” and then I sat down.

Of course they applauded. Of course they laughed. I felt pretty good about myself - I had survived!

Then I discovered that they vote on who gives the best “Table Topics” address. I should have been taking notes so that I could vote. I was even told that I could vote for myself.

Well, I didn’t. Vote - that is. I hadn’t been paying as close attention to the other talks as I should have. And there was no way I thought that mine was any good.

But when the votes were tallied, I tied for first place. They gave me the ribbon because I was the guest. I think they were just being nice

But I learned a lot of things:

1. (duh) stepping outside of your comfort zone is uncomfortable!
2. I need to work on my listening skills probably even more than my speaking skills
3. Don’t hesitate to look up something you are interested in - it may even turn out to be convenient to participate in!
4. being uncomfortable doesn’t kill me
5. Making new friends is fun, if scary
6. I can always accomplish more than I think, simply by attempting it,
And finally, this thought applies to pretty much everything in life and is directly stolen from Nike, that is - just DO it!