It's 2010 and a New Season for Top Start Toastmasters!

On the morning of our first meeting of the year I thought it fitting that I offer to say a few words of welcome, and perhaps something wise.

And to be honest, I was in the shower when this thought occurred. Reaching for a towel I was reminded of the muscles I awakened at my last yoga class and voila! a relevant thought came. My yoga teacher Ines tells me that the real benefit of yoga actually happens in the space of time between poses, the integration time. Likewise there is significance to the moment between the inhalation and the exhalation and she encourages us to pay attention to that moment. Author Deepak Chopra talks about the ‘gap’ – it’s the space between thoughts that gives us access to the field of pure potentiality.  (I know this for a fact, because when I’m practicing yoga I’m so filled with bliss there is no room for thinking and vice versa!)

 

How does this relate to us? From a Toastmasters perspective, our season is the stretch and our summer is the ‘gap’. I feel that over the year our club members show an exceptional willingness to expand and grow, to access the highest potential. Whether it’s through personal accomplishment or what we enable others to accomplish via our roles in the meetings, we do some serious exercising. We have high achievers, entertainers, those on a vertical growth curve, scintillating intellect, diplomats, and professional huggers. We get a lot done each year; we do a lot of learning. And then we break for 6 weeks over summer to let it all soak in.

 

It feels good to be back, yet different. Perhaps what I sense is that each and every one of us, gathered for the pounce, is ready to launch to the next level.

 

Seatbelts on everybody. 2010 is going to be a great year.

shout it from the rooftops
Mood:  energetic

What is it about Toastmasters that has us wanting to shout it from the rooftops? The fact that we are no longer nervous about making a spectacle of ourselves? The fact that when we get up on the roof, we have something worthwhile to say?

A few days ago I came across a quote that gave me another way of looking at my Toastmasters experience:

"Comfort zones are plush lined coffins. When you stay in your plush lined coffins, you die." -Stan Dale

Macabre, but it gets the point across. One of the biggest attractions of Toastmasters is that it forces us out of the coffin. There's nothing static in the universe - all living things are either moving forward or going back. We aren't even resting or hiding in our coffins because energetically, it's just not possible. 

Toastmasters forces forward movement. In taking action, moving forward, stepping out and leaving the cushy velvet, we feel what it is to really LIVE. We engage at the highest level when we take risks, and the rewards are magnificent.

I make a point of connecting with people right after they've made their ice breaker speech. I ask 'So, how do you feel?' and never once heard a response such as "Aweful. Wish I'd never done it. Didn't do much for me, bit of a waste of time." And even if they, the Type A types, say they could have performed better, the look on their face belies the truth. They are elated.

When humans are onto a good thing they naturally want to share it. And it certainly feels a lot better to be moving foward than going back. If being comfortable means I'm hanging out in a plush lined coffin, rip the lid off! Let me out! I will shout it from the rooftops for whomever has ears to hear.

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