Speech no 10 CC Manual : The ninety minute workout

The objective of this speech is to inspire the audience. I am using this speech as an opportunity to instill enthusiasm about the Rhetoracles club and inspire higher involvement in the club and in toastmasters in general. To do this I've used an analogy of going to a gym. 

Here's the speech :

The ninety minute workout.

Good evening everyone! How many of you work out regularly/ believe in physical training? We all do. I am sure we also seek food for thought, to keep our minds sharp. But what inspires me greatly is the fact that you all believe in one other workout as well – for your social persona. My inspiration is right here, it is all of you, this very experience of Rhetoracles meeting and tonight I am going to use this analogy of physical workout to highlight the positives of my Rhetoracles experience, my 90 minute weekly workout, how it has inspired me! By doing this my intention is to inspire you all in turn to take your involvement with TM to the next level.

I had made my decision to talk about my TM journey, so far, in my 10^th speech. Believe me, Rhetoracles has been my single largest inspiration lately. But, I was struggling to find an idea to base my speech upon. When you are at Rhetoracles, you just have to look around the room to find the inspiration, literally! Recently, when our area governor Adam Porad visited the club, Emory and I were chatting with him after the meeting. I was telling him that I am just a newcomer to this club, but we have members who have been regulars for the past 20+years who have a treasure trove of wisdom and experience. And he commented that this is like a gym – you got to train regularly. Emory added to it saying that everyone has something to learn from each one of us.20+ years there sure must be something terrific inspirational about this program to have earned such a long term commitment. That night the idea for this speech was planted. What a perfect analogy! Going to Rhetoracles is like going to gym. Tonight I will emphasize 5 major motivators or benefits that one is likely to achieve through committing to a club like Rhetoracles and draw parallels with working out.

Why? The need, the necessity.

The very basic reason of joining a gym is to train your body. Chances are that you need to be in a good shape, or are recovering from an illness or training for a marathon etc. when gym becomes a necessity. Even when you are in the best condition of your health you go to gym as maintenance, to be prepared, to keep away disorders. Similarly, when you find it challenging to communicate in public, you seek help by joining TM. Even when you become wizard of words, like Emory, Dennis you don’t stop coming. You constantly hone your skills, be prepared for the next big speech. And there is also always room for improvement!

2. Stress Buster

Second and most obvious positive effect of a workout is stress relief. Exercise releases endorphin which help us relax by bringing in the general feeling of well-being. 90 minutes of interaction, fun filled information exchange also makes us forget the stressful day and I go home refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the busy week ahead. Work load is an easy excuse to use skip both your gym as well as TM. It is very easy after a hard day at work to just be lazy and go home. In fact, when I have a lot of work load, I make it a point not to miss the meetings. It helps me to do my work more efficiently before and after the meeting. (Of course sometimes we have last-minute fires which we can’t help). Try that next time and I am sure you will agree with me.

3. Boost your self-esteem

Another reason which I find to be an extremely important advantage is a boost to your self-esteem. When you work out regularly at the gym you get through the day more efficiently, you can accomplish more, people compliment you, you feel good about yourself, it boosts your self-confidence and results in you performing well and achieving more! Don’t you see a similar chain-reaction happening here at the TM program? When you practice regularly, you get feedback in the form of notes from the members – which as Susan aptly termed as ‘pearls of wisdom’, sometime ago. Once you work on the feedback, you communicate effectively, you get your ideas across the room and you sound more credible, in control of your thoughts and start seeing the desired results. That is a huge boost!

Let me tell you my story here. I was never afraid of public speaking throughout my childhood or my college days. But change can do unpredictable things to your personality sometimes. How do you deal with change? Some meditate, some engage in a sport or workout so that 1 hr. your mind is distracted from the huge to-dos and uncertainties that one is dealing with.TM worked out to be something similar for me. When I see my TM involvement in retrospect, I realized that I was standing at the threshold of a new phase in life. It was the year when I graduated, got a job, got married, relocated twice! Marriage and job are pretty huge changes in one's life. Nothing negative about these, in fact those are the changes most of us look forward to, and I did as well. But they are still changes. It is just like algebra, the more unknowns you have in an equation, and the more complex the solution becomes. You can't solve unless you substitute one variable for a fixed value/constant. TM was one constant that I held on to in the sea of changes. It provided me with some stability, and helped sanity prevail.  And now that I am past the initial uncertainties, it has strengthened my belief further! What is more, there is no fear of failure here! In fact, you are free to fail here so that you don’t commit the same blunders in the outside world!!

4. Advances in technology

The fourth reason – advances in technology. This may seem counter-intuitive at first. You will see soon that advances in technology can never take away the need to work out. Nor can it eliminate the need to convey your thoughts more effectively – both in personal as well as professional lives. In fact, an advance in technology has only increased the demand on both. As human race evolved from hunter-gatherers to farm workers to industry workers to finally sedentary jobs in front of a computer terminal, with each change our need to train our bodies to keep it in perfect working condition has only increased. We have not evolved to do away with the physical training. Similarly, with the advent of sophisticated computer programming, automation, neat graphics to display the results the need to explain those to the audience in a clear and concise manner has only gone up. Specializations demand the need to convey the findings of your area/field in an understandable language to the layman. Same is applicable in relationships and personal life. Crucial communication is not done through social networking sites or SMS; we still need words. No technology comes to our aid at such times, but the techniques practiced here sure come handy.

5. Gain knowledge, cultural exchange, broaden your outlook

If these reasons don’t inspire someone, I think they must be differently wired. For all such, I recommend coming here for the sheer knowledge you receive within such a short span of time. The eclectic nature of the club, the diversity helps you broaden your outlook, have cultural information exchange and prepares you to be a global citizen. I think this is a very easy way to accomplish that.

My goal here was to motivate you to take your TM involvement to the next level, get you committed for long-term. Yes I know, it is a voluntary organization but so is working out. I was thinking that having completed the CC would be like a milestone- but looking around the room I see that I have so many steps to climb to call it a milestone. CC is just the first step of the journey, and I hope after tonight a lot of you would feel that way!

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf7smAeAW9w&feature=youtu.be