Create Your Story (08/01/2020)
Last month we celebrated District-101 Annual Leadership Recognition. Ever since I watched this event for the first time in 2016, I looked forward to it every year. It’s a celebration of Excellence, Service, Integrity and Respect. We recognize clubs who achieved distinguished status and those members, officers, area directors and division directors who exemplified these values. We hear stories of camaraderie, of mentors and proteges and above all of the magical transformations through Toastmasters.
We love stories because stories inspire us, give us courage and belief in ourselves. Stories instill values across generations and instill hope in difficult times. Often there is a structure to an inspiring story. It begins with a normal world, then comes a conflict or tension where the protagonist meets a challenge and then there is a resolution (like a musical passage resolving in perfect cadence), A good story has several of these motifs.
I see a parallel pattern emerging in our own lives. A few months ago we were in a normal world, Toastmasters experience used to be as most of us had known it. Then came the second phase, the tension, the change, the challenge of online meetings. At the climax the spirit of Toastmasters will prevail, and we will enter the new normal.
We are partly still in the phase of change. We are working through the change of online meetings. And you are the protagonist. How will you write your story? Is it a story of courage and persistent efforts, is it a story of love and friendship? Is it a story of growth? What do you resolve to do? One year from now when you look back, what will make you proud? Will you make it a year of experiment and growth?
‘Now’ has always been a ‘good enough’ moment to take the action. But the ‘Now’, right now, is somewhat extra-ordinary. We don’t have the ‘in person’ meetings, and the same audience connection, the same human touch. Nonetheless we have the platform to practice skills which will matter in our lives and our work, more than ever. Our ability to present ourselves effectively in online meetings. Listening, connecting and collaborating in an online medium will be the top skills of the new world. And therefore the impact of a good Toastmasters meeting is broader than ever. It will transform you and has potential to transform your guests. And if they join and grow through Toastmaster, a life is changed. you and your club will have created a social impact.
I invite you to envision the impact you want to create, to design your experiments, and to enliven them by writing and or sharing with your support group. You can share it with your club, your district, and count me in your support group. And start to put a consistent effort. See what happens!
Your choice of striving, of making little experiments, of sharing your stories and inspiring your fellow members, matters, Now more than ever. Mahatma Gandhi said “Even a single lamp can dispel the deepest darkness”. What if we all can be such lamps?
