What is Toastmasters to me ??
1) I once picked a quote as the theme for our club’s toastmasters session. The quote was “We Shape Our Tools, and Thereafter Our Tools Shape Us” (http://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/06/26/shape/). I found it on the quoteinvestigator where I usually look for such interesting quotes & the stories behind those quotes.The theme turned out to a brilliant pick, for I got to listen to some really amazing speeches by the fellow toastmasters on the Table topics around the theme. Well I was the table topic master 🙂
As I was ending the Table topic session, I realized something & I presented my realization to my fellow toastmasters saying “Toastmasters is one such tool that is shaping us today. Ralph C. Smedley founded Toastmasters international in 1924 to help people communicate better. And that tool he created back then is shaping us today. There is no better example to this quote “We shape our tools & there after our tools shape us” than toastmasters.
To me Toastmasters is a tool that has been shaping people since it conception in 1924, and will continue to shape people into better communicators for generations to come.
2) Give shape to your thoughts.
Our brains are brilliant beyond our wildest imagination; well our brain help us with our wildest imaginations; so I am sure we all accept how brilliantly beautiful our brains are. Our brains bombard us with countless thoughts. Some are so beautiful that people actually penned down their thoughts & today we read those amazing poems, literature from the past. Mind you, thoughts are elusive, they disappear from your brain before you could actually pen down. You will know what I am talking about if you watch this – https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius?language=en .
At this point I would like to pause & ask, do you think we do justice to our brilliant brain with the kind of command we have over our language. All those thoughts our brain helps us come up with, can only be expressed or conveyed using a language. Language is such a handy tool there, but how many of us truly take advantage of this tool to convey our thoughts clearly. How many of us struggle to get a point across ? How many of us consciously like to sharpen our skill at using this tool ?
If C++ is the language that can get you through your career, what length do we go to, to master the language. Then why do we not do the same to master the language that is most crucial for meaningful survival ?
To me Toastmasters is a tool that helps me shape my thoughts to convey them clearly to the people who matter to me, whom I would really like to understand the person that I am, what I have to say & share.
3) To be continued