Toastmaster Speech 5 Reflections - 1000 Origami Cranes

I was happy with the speech not that I delivered a perfect speech, but that I met the goal of meeting the time constraint, and I got lots of constructive feedback, and witness some amazing things in the process all while battling a migraine and the flu.

Mistakes stick better than success in my head, the key is to find the root cause of it and learn from it, and raise your awareness of it.  Being in a room full of great speakers, learning is accelerated, because they pick up on little things straight away, and give you the feedback in a positive manner.

Migraine and the Flu 

My head was pounding in the morning, it was really hurting, I don't take pain killers.  Migraines have settled down but I think it was the change of weather and the flu that was triggering it.  An amazing thing happened, after the speech the migraine disappeared completely.  I think thats got something to do with a release of emotions through the speech, the speech was about hope, healing and compassion.  Positive messages are always healing, I witness this first hand today!

Imperfect delivery

The speech was far from perfect, I stumbled on the opening, I was fumbling around with the paper, sniffling, however it was heartfelt, I was there in the speech, and people felt it.

The audience can feel your mindfulness, and your concern about your message, regardless of your preparation, I am finding issues to date with that of the techniques, the techniques are what needs to be refined by continuously practicing, and getting further feedback until new patterns are formed.

I was really pleased with the constructive feedback:

- Get straight to the attention getter 

- No fumbling my notes, next time I will only have one sheet of paper, with some supporting slides if needed

- Open with core intent after attention getter 

- Have 3-5 core points 

- Have smooth transition between the points that supports the core intention of the speech

Body language needs to remove anything graceful 

- Paper distractions 

- Kept looking at the watch

On preparing the speech, repeat the intention, the structure, then imagine yourself going through the speech in the time, alert, focused.

Mindfulness in Delivery

Mindfulness involves opening yourself up to observe everything around you, but an anchor is required.  That anchor is the eye contact of the audience.  Keep eye contact like a magnet, and then just deliver the speech without judgement.

But when you are aware of speaking, it starts becoming art...

This is bound to happen if you speak with awareness. Then every gesture, every word has a beauty of its own. There is grace. 

Osho - Qoute taken from http://www.messagefrommasters.com

Nameste,

Kirpal