As one of keynote speakers on 10th anniversary party of EF Phoenixes
Do you want to know my answer to this question. I’ll tell you later.
About two months ago, I got a call from Nova.She said to me.“King, you know you are scheduled to give a keynote speech on our 10 years’ anniversary party?
“What! I don’t know!”
“Now you know it.”
“Speak before one hundred persons, if i mess it up, how can i face them?
“King, remember one of club values-enjoy losing your face.”
“Ok, count me in”
I joined Toastmasters in 2010. To be honest, being a toastmaster for more than 6 years, i found i didn’t make dramatic improvement in oral English. I might be an easy-going and nice guy in front of you. But when I got on the subway and back after meeting, I always felt unpleasant. In fact, I was not satisfied with my performance in 90 percent of meetings i attended.
The moment I felt extremely depressed was in one meeting held last November. During that meeting, I performed poorly in Table Topics session. My speech structure was messy, too many unnecessary words, no eye-contact with audience. It made me feel ashamed. Once I was back to seat, I lowered my head and started thinking why i couldn’t perform well on stage.
Do you know:
“How many table topics I made during past 6 years.” No more than 10.
“How many hours i spent in writing and rehearsing my each prepared speech.” No more than 3 hours.
“How frequently I watched my speech videos.” Seldom.
If I put less effort in them, how could I make much progress. Afamous saying goes like this: What we are today are what we did yesterday. If you want to get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.
“I want to change, I want to grow, and I want to becomea better speaker.” So i made a promise after that meeting.Whenever i attend regular meeting, i would push myself to participate in Table Topics session, otherwise, i should send a red packet to members’ wechat group as a punishment. Besides, I will review my video of table topics every week and figure out areas needed to improve. n the following three months, I did what i promised, and gradually, I began enjoying slow but stable improvement.
When club table topics contest was open for all this February, i challenged myself to be one of 12 contestants. Among them, we had contestants April and Elaine, their English was as good as their Chinese; we had a contestant Thomas, a native English speaker; we had contestants Eva, Michael and other experienced members.Winning this contest was like mission impossible, in fact, i did not take it seriously. As the champion was none of my business, I was just passing by.
I was the last contestant to make a table topics speech in club contest. Once i stood on the stage, all the audience raised their heads quickly and stared at me directly. At that moment, i felt that I was burned on the stove. After contest chair spoke out the question, I paused a few seconds and took a deep breath. Then I made a creative answer to the question with valuable core message and vivid interaction with the audience. When the contest chair announced the contest result, I unexpectedly got the first place among 12 contestants.
Later, with all my hard work, I also won in Area Contest. Before Division Contest, to learn good phrases and sentences,i read three English novels and used up one notebook in one month. And I sought out 8 champion videos of District Table Topics contests, watched them more than five times, and explored shining points of these champion videos. Besides that, I also practised my creative thinking by asking myself “What could do differently if I got the same question.”
Hard work paid off. I won the champion of Division TT Contest, and became the first person who competed in district TT contest in club 9 years’ history
During this journey of preparation for contest, I learned a lot: To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did. How to be a competent speaker and leader? By just being a silent audience for two hours’ meeting every week, not standing on the stage to deliver a speech, or not having well-preparation before every meeting, it’s impossible for us to gain remarkable progress.
Dearladies and gentleman, we all have difficulties and obstacles in our careers or daily lives. Difficulties and obstacles are like deep rivers lying before us. When you face them, will you hold back, or challenge yourself to get across? Always choose to move forward.
We all want to change and be a better speaker and leader, but we don’t have any superpower. The superpower of changing myself, yourself, and ourselves is in our hands. Remember: To get something you never had, you had to do something you never did. Thank you very much.
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