From the vault of Humans of D41
District 41, Toastmasters International
Where Leaders are Made!
My Toastmasters journey started 6 years back and I wish to be a part of this journey for as long as I can.
After having been a member of 5 clubs, founder member of one and having fulfilled 4 different EC officer responsibilities, I can confidently say that I have evolved to become not just a better leader& more effective communicator but also a nicer human being.
I finally mustered the courage to take part in a contest after 5 years and made it to the district finals in the evaluation contest this year. This got me thinking .. why didn’t I take part in contests earlier? Fear of failure and taking risks has held me back from doing the things I love doing.
Taking part in the evaluation contest has helped me realize that the first step to success is not the absence of fear rather accepting the fact that you are nervous, and you may fail not once but multiple times. I was completely fine with not winning the contest even at the club level and really wanted to get the experience and exposure that I had denied myself by not coming out of my comfort zone!
The best part about taking part in contests is that you end up going to so many other clubs for practice. More than the feedback, which is a given, I can proudly claim to have made 50+ new good friends, all thanks to one contest that I decided to participate I remember before the district finals how I had already made peace with the fact that I may not win as there can only be 1 winner even if the 12 of us are equally good .I was still excited about going to Kolkata as I’ve never been there before and travelling to a new place always makes me sooo happy
Of course, that doesn’t mean I didn’t give it my best shot but I firmly believe that you are your best judge. As soon as I was done with my evaluation , I didn’t feel so good because I knew I hadn’t been up to the mark as per my own standards on that day which is completely ok. I can still take solace from the words of appreciation that came my way from not just a few in the audience but also my fellow finalists, one of them even getting a podium finish.
A few life-lessons that I would like to share with my fellow-toastmasters who may have just started on their Toastmasters journey (I believe my 6 years at Toastmasters automatically qualifies me to share some gyan!!)
1. Practise becoming a good listener (evaluations and roles in any meeting help you do just that!)more than being a good speaker!
2. Learning from all experiences is important and comparing yourself to only a past version of yourself should do!
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3. Push yourself to give the kind of speeches that you admire watching and be the kind of leader that you’ve always looked up to
4. Make the best use of this platform to build meaningful and long-lasting relationships with people that go beyond the 2-hour meetings
5. Life is much bigger and way beyond just Toastmasters. Give it your 100 % not just in contests but even in a regular meeting but please do realize that there is so much more to you than just being a member of this wonderful community.
Let me leave you all with my favorite quote “It’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice” so here’s hoping joining Toastmasters makes you a better human being more than anything else!
Ekta Shetty, DTM has been conferred with status of Distinguished Toastmaster twice and is current president of JPKU Toastmasters Club
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