Week 7 Toastmasters

I'm back. Despite my best intentions, I have been occupied with "life" over the last few weeks. This blog's purpose is to focus on your creative thoughts and actions. I have been busy with my creativity! Just three weeks ago, I competed in my Toastmasters club's International Speech Contest and won. This win took me to the area then the division contests, essentially defeating almost 200 speakers! Next weekend, April 16 & 17, I will travel to Lake Barkley, KY to compete in the District 63 contest. Here I will speak against more speakers who have competed and won on the same levels that I have. The winner on the District level will travel to Palm Desert, CA in August and compete for the title of International Speech Champion. Toastmasters is an international organization so there will be speakers from over 14 nations! Right now I am focusing on next weekend and the District competition. My speech is entitled, "Mentors, They Aren't Always Who You Think They Are," a speech about the various mentors in our lives.

I have also been working on my speaking skills in another area. This past week I recorded a session with Joan Hetzler's radio program, The Writers Show, on WAWL. I will include a link with this post so you can listen to it. I had the opportunity to discuss speech writing and Toastmasters during the show. It was very exciting and truly made me feel very alive to be involved in speaking situations. It is interesting to me that despite my love of quilting and the machine arts, it is speaking that makes me feel so alive.

How have you viewed your gifts? Are the gifts you have identified the ones that truly make your heart sing? Are you focusing on what you think is your creativity or are you avoiding the gift that really brings you joy? Over the next week or two, I am going to focus on where my gifts lie and what gifts truly make me feel alive. I challenge you to do the same. Look back at your list of gifts and the list of what brings you joy then look inside yourself to see your heart sing.

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