Toastmasters Project 1 Learnings

I did my Toastmasters Project 1 today - my personality, my hobbies and my work.

Things I did well: used symbolism to represent my personality, my hobbies and my work.

Things I didn't do well: spoke well over the time limit. The time limit was between 4-6 minutes, with 30 seconds allowance, my speech of 6 minutes and 48 seconds was over by 18 seconds.

As I finished my written speech only during the eleventh hour - nearly 6:30pm today, I did not have time to rehearse it and see how long it was. My original speech, which I wrote yesterday, was less than 3 minutes, which would disqualify me from participating in the best speaker nomination. I had actually recorded my speech yesterday and timed myself.

My original incomplete speech was as follows:

 

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If there are 3 items you can hold in your hand to represent yourself, what are they?

For me, it would be 3 items: A book, a hand phone and a letter.

My hobbies, my personality and my work are what these 3 items represent. I grew up in the perfect environment that shaped my personality, determined my hobbies and my career.

Hobbies - My family was poor: my father was a taxi driver and my mother was a factory worker. At a young age, I found myself drawn to books due to three factors. Books can be borrowed for free from the national libraries and membership to the libraries were free. Reading books was a free and cheap way of passing time. Before my teens, I was reading the Hardy Boy series – stories about 2 teenage and amateur detectives. In my teenage years, I began reading science fiction heavily, after being introduced by my cousin, to a particular second hand bookshop - Sunny Bookshop. My favourite science fiction series are Star Trek and Quantum Leap, both being spin-offs from TV shows.

When I was exposed to computers, I became hooked to computers instantly. I used to spend hours reading how to program computers. Since my family was too poor for me to own a computer, I used to write programs on paper and try out the programs I wrote on weekends whenever my family visited my grandfather’s provision shop.

Personality - My personality type has been assessed to be INTP – introvert, intuitive, thinking, and perceiving. Introvert - I prefer interacting with a few close friends rather than a wide circle. Intuition - I focus my attention on big picture rather than details and on future possibilities, instead of immediate realities. Thinking – I tend to evaluate criteria objectively rather than use personal preferences. Perception – I tend to withhold judgment and delay important decisions, so that if circumstances change, I have my options open.

My love of computers affected my secondary school studies in such a way that my results dropped drastically. With results initially graded at the top of the class, I was reduced to near bottom.

 

 

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My eleventh-hour revised speech was as follows:

 

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If there are 3 items you can hold in your hand to represent yourself, what are they?

For me, it would be 3 items: A book, a hand phone and a letter.

My hobbies, my personality and my work are what these 3 items represent. I grew up in the perfect environment that shaped my personality, determined my hobbies and my career.

My personality is like a book. My personality type has been assessed to be INTP - introvert, intuitive, thinking, and perceiving. Introvert - I prefer interacting with a few close friends rather than a wide circle – just like a book can only be read by a person at one time. Intuition - I focus my attention on big picture rather than details and on future possibilities, instead of immediate realities. Thinking - I tend to evaluate criteria objectively rather than use personal preferences. Perception - I tend to withhold judgment and delay important decisions, so that if circumstances change, I have my options open.

My hobbies - The book and mobile phone also represents my hobbies - My family was poor: my father was a taxi driver and my mother was a factory worker. At a young age, I found myself drawn to books due to three factors. Books can be borrowed for free from the national libraries and memberships to the libraries were free. Reading books was a free and cheap way of passing time. Before my teens, I was reading the Hardy Boy series - stories about 2 teenage and amateur detectives. In my teenage years, I began reading science fiction heavily, after being introduced by my cousin, to a particular second hand bookshop - Sunny Bookshop. My favourite science fiction series are Star Trek and Quantum Leap written by various authors.  In the mid 90s, I discovered the romantic novels written by Nicholas Sparks. I look forward to reading his books about every 1 to 2 years.  When I was exposed to computers, I became hooked to computers instantly. I used to spend hours reading how to program computers every day. Since my family was too poor for me to own a computer, I used to write programs on paper and try out the programs I wrote on weekends whenever my family visited my grandfather’s provision shop.

My love of computers affected my secondary school studies in such a way that my results dropped drastically. With results initially graded at the top of the class, I was reduced to near bottom over a period of 4 years, and I wasn’t able to study any computer-related courses at tertiary institutions. I studied electrical engineering course and signed up for the Navy as a weapons specialist. Fate has something else planned for me, and the rest of my contract was served out running a data centre.

The letter represents my part time and full-time work for the help that I gave people. After I left the Navy, I have worked in the IT industry since, and today, I am a technical support engineer, providing support for customers using my company’s software and hardware. 6 years ago, I began helping people living in my area by serving as a grassroot leader and writing appeal letters for them. This year I graduated from a part-time counseling psychology diploma course and decided to improve my public speaking skills and here I am.

Thank you.

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During my presentation, I was nervous, and I stucked my hands in my trousers instead of leaving them out beside me. I did not record the presented speech, so that was lost forever.

If I had more rehearsal, perhaps I wouldn't be so nervous. I had also thought of desensitization - using videos of the audience to desensitize my nervousness.