TOAST

Toastmasters International endeavours to improve the speaking and leadership skills of its members. While projects help people sharpen individual facets of their skills, only a contest can test the mettle of people. Toastmasters International organizes fours contests over a year which are organized in groups of two every six months. So while during the first six months of the year we have the “International Speech” and the “Table-topics” contest, “Humorous speech” and “Evaluation” contest follow in the next six months.
As a toastmaster I have been involved in representing my club in the various contests for the last one year. I have been a participant in all the four different contest at different times. Unfortunately I haven’t won any of the contests even one time. Infact I can proudly say, I haven’t been even close. No special mention or even third or fourth runners up for consolation.

However while people and even I see failure at times as an indication that it’s time to give up, I am still as enthusiastic about contests as the time I first tried my luck. Maybe the fact is that contests have given me so much new to learn that I am still pining my chance. Here are my major learnings-

Sh** Happens- I normally consider myself as pretty good at table-topics. However the first contest I went to had a topic like-“My parents are in the iron and steal business. My fathers steals and my mother irons it.” The announcer announced the topic and I started speaking. Unfortunately maybe I was too scared or something as its only when I sat down after the speech that I realized the hidden pun. There was no reason why it had not clicked to me earlier except the random factor called luck.

Competition Helps-At times I have realized that my ego tends to get the better of me. After a good speech when people congratulate , I start to feel happy about myself and think I am very very good. Competition tells me there are better people. It allows me to set higher goals.

Practice helps- This international speech contest I saw someone steal away the top prize as he just had prepared too well. The speech of nearly each contestant was very good but this guy comes as if in a movie and simply blows us away with his body language, gestures , voice modulation. Practice allows even an average speech to touch greatness.

Never Give Up- I have seen giants(in terms of their earlier track record) ousted by people who were just members for a few weeks or those who had no prior record. Basically in the David versus Goliath battle the underdog wins. And that tells me why I should keep at it.

There is no limit to perfection- It is important to set high goals. You may be good but there is no reason why you cant be better.
Very few win by a wide margin- The margin of win and defeat is mostly very slim. Maybe better practice could have made the difference or a better modeled speech. Or maybe it just was not your day. Defeat is perfectly natural. You went and tried and that itself speaks a lot. Never forget there is always another contest six months down the lin