Another year has come and gone and soon we will be bidding adieu to the year 2008.
It has been an eventful year for me and it is timely to reflect on how the year has developed in terms of my key interests in toastmasters, kidsREAD and personal goals.
Toastmasters
It has been a good year for toastmastering. I have accelerated my growth and personal development in this area by completing my Competent Leader as well as Advanced Communicator Bronze awards this year. I have visited many clubs and made some new friends along the way. It has been tiring at times when one has to go to a club after a day at work and to take up appointments as project evaluator or language evaluator. I continue to learn about event management, planning, scheduling, getting people to say "Yes" to my request for them to come to my club and act as project evaluators and appointment holders. Winning friends and influencing people are a hallmark of Toastmasters skills that one develops (in addition to a thick skin) to get people to help you with meetings. *haha*
kidsREAD
My first full-year of kidsREAD saw me taking care of my 9 cute but at times active class of mosly 7 year-olds. I am blessed to teach this class as the children are mostly well behaved (especially the girls) while the boys were manageable. I believe my vocal variety and ability to be more animated in reading stories has improved as my audience lets me know it whenever the novelty or excitement of the story wears off. Children are very frank in letting you know if you are boring with a capital "B". :-)
Blogging
As the year nears to the end, the creative juices are flowing with sometimes multiple blog entries in one day. It is getting more therapeutic and carthartic to pour out some (not all) of my thoughts electronically for the world to see. Of course, in reality if more than 3 persons read my blog, that is already a good audience. *smile*... It used to be difficult in the beginning to think of what to blog and I felt self-conscious in thinking that my articles would not be worth the bandwidth it took to upload and download. I have managed to overcome this inhibition and now am able to blog relatively freely about recurrent themes and thoughts that permeate (a word I practiced during the previous December club meeting) my mind.
It is amazing sometimes when we document our thoughts we realise there is actually quite a lot going on in the little grey cells up there. Blogging helps us to structure some of the meandering streams of consciousness into a coherent flow which can be navigated by you dear reader. :-) It allows me to explore more of both hemispheres of my brain as I use both words and also pictures or graphics in my blogs to help maximise the creative energies within my mind.
Others
It has not been smooth sailing this entire year. There were periods of depressive tendencies and times when I felt lost as well despite my busy schedule. The busyness at times masks the thin line that separates us from being "OK" to not being "OK" in transactional analysis terms. While most of the time I am "OK", I am also susceptible to bouts of hopelessness and despair as well when the darker side of my mind takes over with the poisoness pessimism that can strike any of us when we least expect it. That is why I have tried to, in my connections with people, be a positive element rather than a toxic, negative element which neutralises good vibes and makes eveyone feel sucky.
Conclusion
It has been an interesting year as there were hits and misses. Overall, I felt that the hits outweighed the misses and begin to realise that when we grow older, we really do trade our youthful idealism and enthusiasm for a more mellowed outlook that is realistically positive. The realistic positive way of looking at things accepts situations more "AS IS" but with a hopeful view. It knows that all that separates us from living and dying is at times just the most minute of circumstances and occurrences. We live in God's hands. He may decide that one day, that is our day to go be with Him.
I wish all my reader(s) a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
May your dreams drive your reality in 2009!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Reflections
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Keeping Audience on Edge of their Seat
One of the most valuable parts of the recentDistrict 80 Toastmasters Annual Convention held in Hong Kong from 18 to 20 May 2007 was Craig Valentine's Keynote address plus his seminar on "How to Keep your Audiences on the Edge of Their Seats".
Despite being the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking, Craig sought out Patricia Fripp, one of the top speaking coaches in the USA, and got coaching from her on his presentation skills even after he was crowned World Champion.
Simply amazing.
There I was, sitting amid 500 participants made up of toastmasters from Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and from neighbouring Asean countries. In the comfortable grey seats of the Hong Kong Convention Centre, listening attentively to Craig Valentine, arguably one of the best speakers I have ever heard in my life.
Craig's 3 step method how to keep our audiences on the edge of their seats comprises of the following:
1) Breathe Life into your Speech
The steps here are nothing magical but it works. First, tell a story and make a point. It's as simple as that but yet it's not that simple?
Sounds paradoxical?
When we tell the story we also need to paint the scene in the mind's eye of the audience. People remember what they saw in their mind. It's not what they see visually through their eyes but what is described to them in vivid detail in their mind's eye. For example, the scene, the sounds, the taste, the texture and feelings all come into play. Make it come alive for the audience.
2) Bring your Audience to You
Many speeches fail to connect with the audiences because the speech is about I, me, myself, the speaker. The audience is selfish, they want to know, "What's in it for me?" To answer that, Craig shared how we can:
The way we can do this is to be as specific as we can in painting the scene in our audience's mind. The use of foundational phrases also help because it summarises in a apt phrase the point the speaker wants to make. E.g. What got you here can't get you there was used by Craig to illustrate how we all can improve beyond our current level. Our past achievements have gotten us so far, but to move even further up we need to have more commitment, more drive and more willpower to do it.
It's not the same for you to read what I told you compared to the actual experience listening to Craig Valentine up-close and personal. He is a very tall gentlemen as you can see from this picture and has a great sense of humour. He uses his body language very effectively because no gesture is wasted, and it is all scripted yet it flow so naturally during his speech. Indeed, when you see a World Champion in action, the quality and ability shines through.
This was my first toastmasters annual convention but it won't be my last. I want to attend more conventions in the future, because if I want to be the best, I have to learn from the best!
Despite being the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking, Craig sought out Patricia Fripp, one of the top speaking coaches in the USA, and got coaching from her on his presentation skills even after he was crowned World Champion.
Simply amazing.
There I was, sitting amid 500 participants made up of toastmasters from Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and from neighbouring Asean countries. In the comfortable grey seats of the Hong Kong Convention Centre, listening attentively to Craig Valentine, arguably one of the best speakers I have ever heard in my life.
Craig's 3 step method how to keep our audiences on the edge of their seats comprises of the following:
- Breathe Life into your Speech
- Bring your Audience to You
- Build a Message that Sticks
1) Breathe Life into your Speech
The steps here are nothing magical but it works. First, tell a story and make a point. It's as simple as that but yet it's not that simple?
Sounds paradoxical?
When we tell the story we also need to paint the scene in the mind's eye of the audience. People remember what they saw in their mind. It's not what they see visually through their eyes but what is described to them in vivid detail in their mind's eye. For example, the scene, the sounds, the taste, the texture and feelings all come into play. Make it come alive for the audience.
2) Bring your Audience to You
Many speeches fail to connect with the audiences because the speech is about I, me, myself, the speaker. The audience is selfish, they want to know, "What's in it for me?" To answer that, Craig shared how we can:
- tap and transport
- search for similarities
- show our failures and flaws
The way we can do this is to be as specific as we can in painting the scene in our audience's mind. The use of foundational phrases also help because it summarises in a apt phrase the point the speaker wants to make. E.g. What got you here can't get you there was used by Craig to illustrate how we all can improve beyond our current level. Our past achievements have gotten us so far, but to move even further up we need to have more commitment, more drive and more willpower to do it.
It's not the same for you to read what I told you compared to the actual experience listening to Craig Valentine up-close and personal. He is a very tall gentlemen as you can see from this picture and has a great sense of humour. He uses his body language very effectively because no gesture is wasted, and it is all scripted yet it flow so naturally during his speech. Indeed, when you see a World Champion in action, the quality and ability shines through.
This was my first toastmasters annual convention but it won't be my last. I want to attend more conventions in the future, because if I want to be the best, I have to learn from the best!
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