It made me smile and feel warm again.

That’s the second time.

Tonight I went to another Toastmaster’s club as a guest. This club was smaller, more relaxed (we went an hour over time!), and friendly. The man who I sat beside whom they asked to “show me around” as it were for my first meeting was very interested in helping me get the most out of my experience whether I came back or not.

He went out of his way.

I got the feeling he liked himself and he liked helping people. That is a good combination.

I did my first Toastmasters speech! A table topic speech, 2 minutes long (I went 22 seconds over) on adversity.

Table topic means it was completely impromptu and I didn’t know the topic until I reached the lectern.

I talked about adversities I’ve had recently and am having now… and how they’ve helped me grow. I talked about how Jim Rohn — previously mentioned because this so true quote of his:

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”
– Jim Rohn

… was another speaker’s table topic — helped me start the process of at last being the person I have always wanted to be.

Jim talked about his mentor who, when Jim told him how he had been living and how he’d accomplished nothing of permanence in 6 years — no savings, hardly read any good books, attended no courses, had improved himself in no discernible way — said, “I suggest you don’t do that anymore.”

That. Is. Profound. What a way to summarize the situation.

Jim also talked about the value of keeping a journal, something which has been instrumental in my growth since I started.

I talked about Bear and how she had helped me in many ways… and about how I was grateful for these particularly challenges since they served as valuable learning tools. With the journal.

I wrapped up.

After the meeting where it was the habit of this club to pass around notes to people with both sincere praise and helpful suggestions for improvement, I received but one, this one:

… from a 15 year old girl from Texas attending as a guest (she’s too young to join and had herself only reluctantly spoken after being encouraged to several times).

Now isn’t that sweet? I’m going to paste it in my journal. That is a treasured keepsake.

I’d given a closing comment about 3 points, the 1st complimenting the man who was mentoring me, the 2nd about the wonderful energy and warmth in the group as a whole, the last being I’d voted for another table topic speaker as being the best… however, I thought the girl guest showed great courage by getting up.

I wrote a note to every speaker and my note to her included mostly positive phrasing, for example:

“Your body language and gestures were excellent and expressive… once you took your hands out of your pockets!”

I placed as much emphasis as I could in a short time on how a courageous act, which she justifiably felt good about, repeated once may not have much effect.

But similar acts repeated many times could have an enormous effect on her personality, her self-confidence, and her life. She seemed to like that and the man who was helping me tonight made a special point of saying he did too, which I appreciated.

He, however, was perhaps more realistic in appraising my speaking abilities:

• grasped pen throughout, which was distracting (I tend to do this; I’d made a mental note to myself to leave it behind and I didn’t even realize I had it in my hand!)
• stayed “locked behind” the lectern

On the other hand, he also said:

• had good eye contact and held it throughout demonstrating confidence
• speech had a strong wrap up
• open, honest, “endearing”

… so it wasn’t all bad.

This meeting was completely different than the first and, on the whole, I enjoyed it very much, too!