how do you see yourself in a big picture
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My Learning journeyDuring my journey to be a motivational speaker, I took advantage of any opportunity to perform, ended up unintentionally rehearsing on a daily basis, with friends and family, as well as during long hours, while performing my job as a receptionist. Now that a new chapter of my life is unfolding, I decided to join toastmasters, I enrolled last May 2021, they say it’s never too late, right?,
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Ice breaker (Toasmasters)
The first speech you’re invited to prepare as a new toastmasters club member, is the ice breaker speech, 4 to 6 minutes long, to introduce myself. I had a week to prepare. Watched less than ten utube videos, with hundreds of ted talks that I’ve been watching for years, helped me to consider many things like:
- It should NOT be always about me
- Stick to the time permitted
- Include humor, make fun of yourself, not others
- Speak slowly, to be understood
- Facial and hand gestures are very important
- Vocal variety, don’t be shy
- Strong beginning
- Thoughtful closing
- Make it simple
- Brief
- Easy to understand
- Clear
- Pause when needed
- Breathe
- Give examples
- Rewrite rewrite rewrite
- Don’t settle until you like and feel what you wrote
- Rehearse Rehearse Rehearse
- Record your final version
- Keep refining, recording, editing
- Share insights when possible
Preparing my speech
With much information in mind, I started jogging down ideas in outline format. Kept tweaking, untill I was happy with one. It just felt right. A tutorial for Darren Tay Wen, Toastmasters world champion 2016 helped me a lot.
Drafting the final speech script
After I had the idea clear, I wrote whole speech down. Read it few times, kept editing every time I read, until i had the final speech script. Then I recorded myself speaking, with vocal variety, pauses, until I had the final mp3 file ready within the time limit. I sent it to my assigned mentor at my Toastmasters club, he replied with few tips to consider upon performance.
Life speech, zoom meeting
I usually attend zoom meeting at burger king near me, my two year old baby tried her best to allow me to study, and it didn’t work. On the day of my ice breaker speech, I couldn’t log in the first hour of the meeting, my computer decided to update, took what sounded forever to finish updating. I managed to connect on my phone, it wasn’t the same. I succeeded to log in from my computer just before my speech. Needless to say, the place was very noisy; thankfully, the speech itself was good.
During my speech, I didn’t hear all the noise, not the door slamming many times behind me. Luckily I managed to enhance the audio with some help. I was grateful all the attendees were able to hear me, although it was hard somehow, as they shared.
During my speech, I didn’t hear all the noise, not the door slamming many times behind me. Luckily I managed to enhance the audio with some help. I was grateful all the attendees were able to hear me, although it was hard somehow, as they shared.
Speech evaluatio
My evaluator “Sunitha” found the speech very good. Audio evaluation is below.
Love notes
In our club, every zoom meeting, after every speech, we take a minute to send love notes to the speaker. It includes our opinion of his speech including praise as well as points of improvement. Below were the love notes I received right after my speech. I got those lovely notes below:
- ST: Fun talk - great Job- go ahead and mute yourself- Background noise
- TR: This was BRILLIANT! I loved watching you and listening to you. Your speech was poetic. It made me want to get to know you. I gave you a standing ovation (but you couldn’t tell)
- SU: Your speech flowed so well. It felt like I was listening to poetry. Looking forward to more speeches from you :)
- MA: That was brilliant, you are a natural speaker. You were confident and composed. One of the best Ice breaker speeches.
- AL: Congratulations on your ice breaker speech! You did great. I love your energy and smile throughout the speech and your message was powerful! Suggestion for the future: The sound was a bit low and I could hear some background noise, so it was hard to hear sometimes :( But other than that, you did excellent. I look forward to hearing your next speech!
- MO: Really wonderful speech. You are so very expressive you might want to position yourself so that the TV screen doesn't show up behind you. Congratulations well done
- JO: creative, super body language. needed your voice to be louder, congrats and welcome
- LA: Very fine speech. Very well organized and delivered. You hand gestures were very good and I look forward to seeing more gestures in the future— my thinking is that one good gesture can do more effectively what 40 adjectives can not. Outstanding job getting everyone to know more about you
Little discovery
During my search to find a way to introduce myself in less than six minutes (the ice breaker speech), I stumbled upon a thoughtful exercise. I was able to see myself in a big picture. It felt good, to be able to visualize me, like a mind map. I saw the big picture.
Sharing
I Got so excited like I usually do, couldn’t help but to share my little discovery with my friends. They got enthusiastic thinking about the question (How do you see yourself in a big picture?), their answers pored with different feelings. It was so great that I had to share one of their answers in my speech, I’m so grateful, made my speech better. Below are the answers I got from my friends:
Febin replied: “actually the subject is very nice” Then continued after some time:
“I see myself as a sailor; I discover different places every day. I see different people, different cultures, colors, languages too”
Zena replied: “I see myself as a tree. My name means tree. They say every person has traits from his or her name. The idea is nice. For me, the tree goes through ups and downs; a storm may affect it, seasons, with their difficulties. For example spring, resembles the good times, work and family and health are find, winter could resemble the tuff times in one’s life. The fruit resembles landing a hand helping, or smiling, something others make use of. Could be the clouds, provides shade, and gives rain. We have the same answer; you stole my answer, the tree, lol”
Suheil shared: “I see myself a flower. Provide nice view, lovely smell, source of happiness to others. Cute and humble, does not complain”
Zain shared: “I’m like the waterwheel, I distribute and make people and lands happy, who lives on the sides of the river. Sometimes I run fast, and other times I run slowly, depending on the speed of the river. Sometimes it jams and stops working, needs maintenance and oil, then goes back to work, turning and turning and turning, distributing water making people happy, cause water is the source of life, but he stays in place, turns and distributes”
Gulia shared: “OK, I imagine myself like a big beautiful house on the long road. There are no other houses but me... I welcome everyone who nocks my doors; I give shelter, food, comfort and my heart. I do it as genuinely as I am. I want every visitor to have good time during their stay. In return I get energy, because as they say empty house is worse than being homeless. I enjoy every visit; every visitor gives me a different energy and vibes. They make me feel bright and alive. ❤”
After the “Big Picture”
It didn’t stop there. I advised a friend to take an action according to her discovery of how she sees herself, she loved the idea. As for another friend who didn’t like what he saw, we are trying to find a way to alter things to enhance the result. Being able to see is powerful, enables us to act upon our discovery.
“I see myself as a sailor; I discover different places every day. I see different people, different cultures, colors, languages too”
Zena replied: “I see myself as a tree. My name means tree. They say every person has traits from his or her name. The idea is nice. For me, the tree goes through ups and downs; a storm may affect it, seasons, with their difficulties. For example spring, resembles the good times, work and family and health are find, winter could resemble the tuff times in one’s life. The fruit resembles landing a hand helping, or smiling, something others make use of. Could be the clouds, provides shade, and gives rain. We have the same answer; you stole my answer, the tree, lol”
Suheil shared: “I see myself a flower. Provide nice view, lovely smell, source of happiness to others. Cute and humble, does not complain”
Zain shared: “I’m like the waterwheel, I distribute and make people and lands happy, who lives on the sides of the river. Sometimes I run fast, and other times I run slowly, depending on the speed of the river. Sometimes it jams and stops working, needs maintenance and oil, then goes back to work, turning and turning and turning, distributing water making people happy, cause water is the source of life, but he stays in place, turns and distributes”
Gulia shared: “OK, I imagine myself like a big beautiful house on the long road. There are no other houses but me... I welcome everyone who nocks my doors; I give shelter, food, comfort and my heart. I do it as genuinely as I am. I want every visitor to have good time during their stay. In return I get energy, because as they say empty house is worse than being homeless. I enjoy every visit; every visitor gives me a different energy and vibes. They make me feel bright and alive. ❤”
After the “Big Picture”
It didn’t stop there. I advised a friend to take an action according to her discovery of how she sees herself, she loved the idea. As for another friend who didn’t like what he saw, we are trying to find a way to alter things to enhance the result. Being able to see is powerful, enables us to act upon our discovery.
What next
After you get the Big Picture you see yourself in, you would be able to work on it towards a better vision of how you see yourself. Gulia is now planning to see more people, to feel happier. Febin is happy with his discovery, he now appreciate his work that takes him to new places, meeting new people. Zain was sad with his discovery, he’s ok with it now, if he changes his mind, and he will have the power to change things, with a better vision to himself.
Try iT
I invite you all to try it. You might or not like what you discover. But it’s a start to know you better. I wish you the best of luck.
Seeing myself as a tree |
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