Expand your comfort zones
To work on my speech capabilites and challenge myself, I joined Toastmasters.
Toastmasters is a social organization where people learn to do puplic speaches in a supportive environment. You do a series of speeches that teaches you all the goodstuff on how to become a effective communicator. As in anything in life, you only get good at something if you practice, with toastmasters this practice is FUN! It's builds your confidence and leadership capabilities.
For more info visit http://www.toastmasters.org/
I have already made two speeches and one toast. Here's the first one, called The Icebreaker!
ICEBREAKER SPEECH (4 - 6min) - Toastmasters Pretoria East, 25 January 2006
Mr Toastmaster
Beginning (40 seconds)
Ladies and Gentleman .......
[PAUSE]
I am proud to give you what you are about to receive, to give it you without hesitation, to give it to you without thoughts like ‘ I'm going to be hit by tomatoes !' , to give it to you with controlled excitement, to give it to you the best I can, having the peace of mind of knowing that, you have a choice to accept it or not, and thinking you will.
I you give to a short story of the ME, Hein van der Merwe
Middle(3 min 40 secs)
Birth, Alberton:
It all happened a wee while back in Alberton Johannesburg were I first saw light, 14 October 1981. My mother tells me that it snowed the day that I was born, or at least that it was very cold and strange for October, coincidence ....? Maybe. But interesting enough anyway. My first few years of life was then spend in (mostly sunny) Alberton. Being second to an older brother who had a 20 Month head start, we investigated life in all it's fullness. Trying to find answers to those nagging questions like " Can a pure black spaniel be turned white with enough washing power? " (Poor Arthur....rest his soul) and " Will Dad find the car keys that we hid in the fish pond? " Soon enough answers did present themselves, mostly in the form of a wooden spoon operated by my mother, but with much love. [1min 10 sec]
Child, Farm, School Career [1 min 20sec]
At the age of five we moved to our Family farm, inherited from the children of Abel Erasmus a little peace of earth called Krugerspost, near Lydenburg in nowadays called "Mpumalanga" the place where the sun rises. It was my father's birthplace, and place of upbringing. I went to primary school at Ohrigstad, which is one those towns you drive into, see the sign, hit the stopstreet and drive out again. But with a school motto like "Be Strong" my primary education was well grounded and taught me good values. My secondary education was completed at Highschool Lydenburg. By that time my stuttering was already well grounded and chronic, being introverted it kept me focused on my academics . Which I think was someone's plan to teach me self-discipline and appreciation, so it's ok.
University, Working young man [1 min 10sec]
After my 12 years of monotonous school uniform, I was very excited to enter University and study for my degree in Electronic Engineering. I stayed in the Hostel (Olienhout) for 3 years while studying. I enjoyed that immensely with flirtatious activities like serenade and watching fast moving fists on the rugby fields I had a great time. In my third year I went on a outreach to mosambique for two weeks, to live among the locals and help them build a church. The money for that I got from standing in the street with a sign "have food, have clothes, have cellphone, have mother, need donation for mosambique outreach", 5 hours gave me R770 bucks. Thanks Pretoria, I had a life changing experience.
After three years and few too many failed subjects, I moved into a commune and focused to complete my last two years. Women and a small guy with a bow and arrow intervined a bit and caused some distraction but luckily I started doing some karate as well which teaches to focus no matter what is happening to you, and that helped a bit.
So came the end of my life as a student and my journey started to gain experience in my career. Being able to by my own bread and butter, and have change left, I entered myself in a speaking program namely the McGuire Course for Stutters. It opened a once distant world to me with a new and different approach to speech control. Giving assurance that desired words can be spoken if enough effort and self-discipline is applied, quite possible with the right support and great new partly-bald friends.
End(40 seconds)
So it has been quite a journey to where I am standing tonight. A journey that was driven by the need to breath comfortably, by the need to find out what it life drives me to a exited state, and pulls me out of a slump. To be able to open my eyes and look in the mirror without hesitation and be proud, also humble , because the bigger part of the world still needs to be explored. There still many lessons to be learned, skills to be acquired, knowledge to be gained, and only by giving and accepting, like tonight.
[PAUSE, Step Back]
Mr Toastmaster.
