Yow Kia

“We are not perfect!” Does this sentence strike a chord to you? You say it out loud always or you hear it frequently from your friends, colleagues, family…?

Recently I requested my supplier to improve from his mistake. He told me - “We are not perfect!” It’s common sense, isn’t it? I thought…

You know how I replied to him? Here it goes, “I totally agree with what you have said – ‘We are not perfect!’. We do make mistakes. But, striving to be PERFECT should be our goal in life. That’s why we need continuous improvement.”

Think about it. When the person says it out - ‘We are not perfect!’, is he trying to give excuse to himself? Due to his imperfection, he is allowed to make mistake? If you happened to say this sentence quite often, ask yourself, what message do you want to convey? You want to tell the other party that making mistake is not your fault because you are born IMPERFECT?

This kind of scenario doesn’t happen only in workplace. It happens everywhere in our life! With this of thought that you are not perfect will only deter your progress to become better. I’m not asking you to bluff yourself or to convince yourself that there is perfect human. But, to set a goal for yourself – “I want to try my best to achieve PERFECTION! I want to PERFECT myself!”

In Toastmasters Journey, you have to maintain this kind mindset as well. There are always rooms for improvement and one of your responsibilities is to find ways to PERFECT your speaking skills. Improve, improve and improve…

Starting from today, if you’ve made a mistake, admit your mistake and tell yourself, I will not repeat the same mistake again in the future. Delete away the negative message that always exist in your mind and tell yourself, I WILL STRIVE TO ACHIEVE PERFECTION!