1. Breathe from your belly
2. So much to appreciate
3. Tense to relax
4. Visualize success
5. Slow down
6. Appreciate yourself
7. Smile because you care
8. Stop doing what doesn’t work
9. Just say no
10. Accept what you cannot change
11. Learn to laugh at yourself

Stone Road Toastmasters is on its way to becoming a President’s Distinguished Club for the 2010-2011 year. I am so proud to be a member and the president of this club!

Today, I had the pleasure and privilege of evaluating the most “real” Ice Breaker I have ever heard. Any one who knows me even an iota knows that I love critiquing speech #1 – not because I am necessarily a harsh critic (although I am!) but more so because I enjoy giving useful feedback to those who are solid speakers from the get go. However, today left me nearly speechless. Never, in my almost two years of Toastmasters, have I heard someone introduce themselves with such brutal honesty, integrity, and conviction. I was humbled and honoured by the experience of praising them to the club! How often at Toastmasters do we strive to be both real people and eloquent speakers? Sadly, I would say less often than not.

Unfortunately I missed my High Noon meeting in Cambridge today due to the weather. The Guelph meeting in the evening was very enjoyable, and I have continued with my habit of fairly (but brutally) evaluating Icebreaker speeches, yet leaving the speaker with a positive and uplifting end note. I feel like I am talking about wine appreciation… a fine hint/nose of pepper, smoke, cherry and leather!

1. Delivering my ACB (Advanced Communicator Bronze) speech during our High Noon speechathon today
2. Attending our Stone Road Holiday party tonight
3. Shopping for a gift this afternoon for the event
4. A celebratory pint with my fellow SRTM’s after the celebration

A lovely success!

I am now wrapping up a rather serious speech to present tonight at Stone Road Toastmasters. Everyone has seen my buoyant and comedic side; interesting to see how they will react to somber.

I happened to be conversing with a friend recently over some fantastic craft beer. Shortly into the discourse, he mentioned to me, “Rebecca – you’re a really great listener.” What a pleasant confirmation of yet another way that Toastmasters has positively affected my life. I never used to be as engaged in the role of a listener. I was one of those people who used to sit rather impatiently, seeming to pay attention to the other person, but mainly anticipating my turn to shoot my mouth off. When you mindfully and actively take a role in the other person and their words, they become all the more richer and more interesting. It becomes easier to pick up on subtleties of language – nuances, hidden meanings, and quiet humour. Granted, there is occasion that I am intently paying attention because I am picking up imperfections in speech, and I fully admit to quietly counting “ums”, “ahs”, and other filler words in conversations, but I usually try to be quiet about such evaluations – unless the other person wants to know!

As much as I really enjoy shooting my mouth off giving speeches, I am really starting to thrive on the evaluation process. In so many ways, people treat listening as a passive process, when in fact, it is active. Evaluating is an excellent reminder of this.

In my quest to obtain Toastmasters excellence – and my ACB (Advanced Communicator Bronze) – by the new year, I have been accepting and volunteering for any and all possible speaking roles. I have volunteered for 2 last minute speaking roles 2 weeks in a row, and today I find myself in an interesting predicament: I am slated to deliver a speech at High Noon Toastmasters at the 12:00 meeting, and then another one at Stone Road Toastmasters in the evening. Sometimes I think I am funny… but am I funny enough to pull off 2 x 5-7 minute humorous speeches in one day. I am not entirely sure how this happened schedule-wise, but I am 99% confident that I can pull it off! I’ve decided on Humorously Speaking #3: Make Them Laugh, and then will spend the rest of the day marinating over #1: Warm Up Your Audience / #4: Keep Them Laughing to determine which I am prepared to deliver in the evening. Near the end of December, I’ll be delivering my final speech for the ACB. I will have to select my new set of manuals soon.