Article #43: The Positive Change

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, has been quoted as saying “change is the only constant in life.” It means we all experience changes every day, may it can be a change in the climate, change in the place that you live, change in the people that you interact, in fact the change within yourself. Change is the only thing we can be sure that would happen.  

Well as part of this article, I am going to talk about the positive change I experienced during my 2 years of journey in Toastmasters.  

It was August 2018 when I officially became a Toastmaster. My passion for public speaking brought me to this platform. From converting my articles to speeches and now speeches to articles, I noticed a change. From writing something that comes to my mind to organizing my thoughts in a structured way, I noticed a positive change. From delivering speeches to doing leadership projects, I noticed a dramatic change. All these changes were filled with learnings, achievements, challenges and their resolutions. 

To talk about the learnings, 

1. Structured Speech: I learned how to write an effective structured speech with better transitions slowly while completing the projects at each level. Earlier, my writings were more stressed on the topics whereas now the structure equally matters for me. I believe that was an inevitable change which can be applied in my blog. 

 

2. Humor on stage: Trust me, it’s not that simple to produce humor on stage. But my second speech itself was the one I gave in the Humorous Speech Contest back then. I still remember how thoroughly I enjoyed each second of my speech on stage and engaged the audience. Wondering how it happened? Practice. I got an amazing mentor with whom I practiced the speech many times before giving it in the contest. An unexpected change that would help me if I do standup comedy sometime in future. 

 

3. Research: I learned that Research doesn’t mean we google and talk about few facts on anything, but it includes many other aspects on a certain topic like the statistics, your analysis, future prediction and so on based on our choice of the topic. A required change that would help me at some point in life while doing research on an unknown topic. 

 

4. Story Telling: I learned the art of storytelling in Toastmasters with expressions, gestures, stage movement and voice modulation one after the other through my speeches. An amazing change that is helping me today in my podcasts. 

 

5. Uniqueness: I learned how to come up with a unique concept for each and every speech sometimes by applying my creativity and sometimes by taking the help and suggestions of my mentor. After we navigate to Level 4, we need to implement projects for which getting an idea itself is not that simple and all those speeches would be about your experience just like today’s speech. But it all depends on us how we craft them in a unique and beautiful way with our creativity. This wonderful change is helping me in handling some things at work. 

 

6. Proposal & Implementation: At the start of Level 3, I completed a speech project, “Present your proposal” wherein I presented a talk show proposal with all the club members. Although it wasn’t implemented physically, I learned how to pull it off virtually through a fun WhatsApp group during the recent lockdown. This change gave a boost to my confidence personally. 

 

7. Podcast: Before I was a Toastmaster, I wasn’t even acquainted with the word ‘Podcast’, but after I have gone through the online material, I understood about the podcast and its types. Although during my level completion, I didn’t officially complete the Podcast project, I started working on my podcast from the last three months. This fantastic change is driving me crazy these days. 

 

8. Compelling Blog: I am a blog writer from the last 5 years. After completing the Blog project in Level 4 Toastmasters, I got to know many new things on how to write a blog effectively. This simple change was the need of the hour. 

 

9. Handling Leadership Projects: 2 of my projects namely, ‘Manage Projects Successfully’ and ‘High Performance Leadership’ are completely leadership projects. I learned completing a project under your leadership requires a lot of coordination, efforts, patience and commitment to the project. I am sure this responsible change would help me in my professional life in future. 

 

10. Handling Leadership Roles: After working in leadership roles like VP-PR, President, IPP, VP-ED in the club, I learned leadership comes with a huge responsibility and a leader is always the one who supports and works along with the team instead of just assigning a work. Also, a leader should never give up and always ensure that the show must continue irrespective of the unexpected situations for the team members or for the leader. This awesome change would definitely help me when I take up a leadership role in my professional life in future. 

 

To talk about the achievements, 

 

1. First Runner-Up in HSC 2018: I was 2 months old Toastmaster when I achieved first runner up in HSC 2018 club contest. This change definitely gave a boost to my confidence as I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. 

 

2. Rising Toastmaster: I received the Rising Toastmaster award for being active in all the meetings within the club and also for attending the meetings regularly in other clubs. This was a memorable change as it happened after 4 months since I joined the Toastmasters fraternity. 

 

3. Winner in TT Contest 2019: After completing 7 months of my journey in Toastmasters, I became the winner of TT contest at club level and second runner-up at area level. This unexpected change brought in more reputation for me. 

 

4. Tripartite Award: After completing 8 months of my journey in Toastmasters, I was awarded the Tripartite Award at Division level conference Orafest for completing 3 educational levels in a path in one Toastmaster year. This was a boosting change as it was a big award that I received on a big stage. 

 

5. Presidential Role: Becoming the President of the club in less than one year because the club members believed in me was a huge achievement for me. This would always be a memorable change. 

 

6. Spark of the Club: I achieved this unique award for bringing together all the club members in a fun group and driving a talk show with them for 1 month. This was definitely a motivating change. 

 

7. HPL with 5 new members: Starting a risky project even after knowing that it was a challenge to achieve success in it at that point of time, but still taking it and attaining success in it with full commitment is something that becomes an achievement for anyone. My HPL project was also the same for me. This remarkable change would always be remembered. 

 

Hold your horses, apart from learnings and achievements, I even experienced challenges in my journey. To talk about the challenges, 

 

1. Stage Fear: I still remember how I completed my first speech for 5 minutes on stage so fast and forgot to follow even the handshake formality properly. But after giving speeches, I got rid of the stage fear and it gave me good confidence. A lovely change. The only way to overcome this challenge is practice. 

 

2. Unconventional Audience: Even in this positive platform Toastmasters, I experienced some unconventional audience who discouraged me with their expressions during my speech. But least they know that they neither affected me strongly nor discouraged me from giving further speeches. The only way to overcome this challenge is ignorance. An Ideal change in my journey. 

 

3. Discouraging Evaluations: Sometimes, you come up with an evaluator who gives you some invalid or unnecessary suggestions for your speech that might discourage you. The only way to overcome this challenge is to take whatever that convinces you to be correct. This change is helping me in dealing with different kinds of people at work. 

 

4. Project Ideas: Sometimes, you lack ideas for some projects to complete just like how it happened for me in choosing a High-performance leadership project. The best way to overcome this challenge is to read the online manual thoroughly, that would give you enough understanding and guidance for you to complete any project in your path. A change that taught me the importance of documentation. 

 

After experiencing so many changes today, I feel that I became a better person today with respect to communication, leadership and most importantly an innovative planner. Pathways educational tracker would definitely contribute to a positive change in anyone. Now, what are you waiting for? Go ahead with your speeches, complete the path and become a better person today.