Yow Kia

Since I have taken the role of president of The Frontier TMC, I have set a few goals for myself. The goals are to visit other Toastmasters Clubs more often and to conquer my fear in doing impromptu speech and evaluation. This time round (25th July), going to visit Dover Toastmasters Club, the main purpose was to support a good friend of mine (Geng Yoke) who was going to present her Project one. I must applaud the good preparation of her project one. No note was used. The flow of the speech was just as fluent as a competent communicator. As a project one speaker, her spunk and fearlessness impressed the audience in the room. Impressive! Her relaxed and jolly approach by telling her name, family, education, career, hobbies…basically it’s all about herself, managed to pique the interest from the audience. I could tell that by seeing the audience listening to her speech attentively.

I thought of recording down the speech, but too bad, I forgot to switch on my recorder. Heck…!

Next purpose of this visit was to take part in the impromptu speech. Oh no, what? The theme of the table topic session was about Global Warming? I have to admit that I know only nuts about global warming. The unfamiliar theme resisted me to step forward. I remember in my last visit to Brilliant Advanced TMC, I was resisted by the performance of the great speakers; most of them are professional speakers. What kind of phobia is that? I was wondering… I remember I could comfortably go out to take part in the impromptu speech in my home club. At last, I have identified that this phobia is called situational phobia, in other words, social phobia. The intensity of the fear differs with situations. When I speak in front of a pool of great speakers, great people, I will tend to be more nervous. When I speak on topic that I’m not familiar with, I will be very nervous.

By knowing the root cause of my fear, I will think of ways to tackle it. I know it’s always the case that it’s always difficult and uncomfortable in the beginning, but later it will become easier and produce rewarding results. I have promised myself that in my next visit to Toastmasters Club, I will definitely take my first step.

How about you? What is your next step? When will you take it?