A doorway

"You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” - Brian Tracy

Few months ago I tried something completely new and got out of my comfort zone. I took up the challenge of competing in a Toastmasters Humorous Speech Contest. Having never delivered a humorous speech before, I surprised everyone and myself with a 2nd place at the Division K Contest in Barcelona.

According to the rules, only the first place goes to the next level. Francisco Mahfuz was all set to head to Madrid and represent Division K but little Alice - Francisco’s daughter decided to arrive to this world on the date of the contest. Excitement and enthusiasm hit when I was asked to compete instead.

The opportunity to compete with the 11 winners of District 59 in the Fall Contest was overwhelming. I passed the semi-finals and performed the finals on a beautiful auditorium stage with a packed audience of 400 people. The size of the stage and the room was impressive and challenging. I was overcome with the mixed emotions of excitement, fear and vulnerability. But the experience of sharing the stage with 5 other great European speakers and make the audience laugh was amazing.

They enjoyed a mockery of my journey of looking for a job which could be a painful process. But humor always makes it easier.

The experience motivated me to keep learning and progressing in public speaking. As Mary Oliver once said: “It's not a competition, it's a doorway.” - A doorway of learning and improving.

But nothing of that would happened if I would not decided to take a chance at the very last moment. Risk it all, book the train and hotel to land in Madrid the next day and without any big preparation compete. Thank you Toastmasters for the doorway.