Yow Kia

I have seen Toastmasters who give speeches constantly, who give speeches occasionally, who have given up giving speeches… Same like physical exercise, take body-building for example. You have to go to work-out in gym constantly in order to keep your muscles growing. Once you’ve stopped your work-out for some time, you have to spend extra time to re-build your muscle and momentum again. When you have momentum, my advice to you is to keep the ball rolling. Don’t let it stop half way! Then, how to keep yourself motivated to give speeches and let your momentum stays with you forever, you must be wondering. Here, I would like to share the ELEVEN ACTIVITIES that I have taken in order to keep myself motivated to give speeches.

1) Set a goal for yourself.
- How many speeches you want to give per month?
- I suggest giving at least two speeches per month.

2) Tell your mentor about your goal
- Make sure that you find a responsible mentor who cares about your progress.
- A good mentor will constantly provide you speaking opportunities and leave you valuable comments on your speech presentation.

3) Tell your club members about your goal.
- Members could mutually support and remind each other on each other goal.

4) Visit other Toastmasters Clubs often
- Learn from speakers not only from your own club, but from other clubs.
- You may be inspired or motivated by good speakers from other clubs.
- Go there as a project evaluator if possible.

5) Present the same project two times to different audience
- Collect comments from your first time presentation.
- Modify your speech and present the speech again to different group of audience.

6) Take part in speech contest
- Strive to put on a good show to inspire the audience.
- The goal in taking part in a contest is to outperform your own limit.

7) Share with others about your speaking experience
- Share with Toastmasters, non-Toastmasters, friends and colleagues.
- Share via blogging and daily conversation.

8 ) Watch great speaker’s presentation video
- Great speaker’s presentation video can be easily searched from YouTube.com

9) Video tape yourself
- Have a collection of your own presentations.
- You will be inspired to give speeches when you see improvement on yourself.

10) Try different styles
- Try different styles in your preparation of speech: mind-mapping, visualization, impromptu…
- Try different styles in your presentation: different body movements, facial expressions, vocal tone…
- You will find it interesting as there are actually a lot of things to be explored.

11) Jot down your ideas
- Always bring a long a small note book with you to jot down ideas.
- Refer to the small note book when you are going to prepare for a speech.