Toastmaster fifth project- Your Body speaks

I gave my fifth project in toastmaster.

Title was "your body speaks". Speech objectives was to effectively use gestures and body language.

So here's the speech.

Here is the end of my creativity. Just after four speeches; I ran short of speech ideas. That's it, Just can't think of any more speech topics. I even contemplated giving speech on topic like dumbness, stupidity with one of the main symptom as ..... Not getting any speech ideas after four speeches.

You people have such high hopes from me but I disappoint. I feel like Rahul Gandhi. I got a panic attack, was unable to speak anything for two three days . I was symbolically and literally "Speechless". And then I had this eureka moment. An idea to give speech on not speaking.

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Mr. Toastmaster, fellow members and dear friends. My speech today is on Not to speak, but to listen

My wife says "You don't listen to me". I said "Umm. You said something, Honey".

We have learned to turn every blessing into the curse.

• We find use of nuclear energy in atomic bomb first and power reactor later.
• Many talented persons are utilizing their acting skills in politics rather than movies.
• The gift of spoken word meant to improve our relationships is actually breaking the relations. Why, because we are so intent on talking that it leaves no time for listening.

Everything that can be said regarding the need to listen has been already said. And apparently we did not Listen to it sincerely enough.

But friends, we have the solution right in front of us. And that is ............... Toastmaster.

I'll show how toastmaster helps . You can thank me later. Mr VP PR.

It started during an argument with my wife. I decided to don the hat of speech evaluator and to actively listen and evaluate her speech. I must say the opening of her speech was excellent. A purist's delight, She started by a question. The question was directed towards her husband,  "Have you lost your mind ?". It really caught my attention and made my think. Have I lost my mind, Maybe that's the reason I can't think of any speech ideas.  And Surprise-Surprise.After I finished my evaluation She was not so mad anymore. She actually forgot what she was saying.

I've managed to get in good books of my boss as I was the only person wide awake during his boring presentations. Actually I was noting down the grammatical errors. I tried the techniques of toastmasters on my friends and colleagues too. The key to appear engaged while listening is that you mentally note down the ahs. pauses and filler words. In fact I would say you go a step further and you start pronouncing those words.

It'll appear that you are thoroughly listening if you words like okay, right. umm after regular intervals with nod of your head.

People actually started coming to me for advice, I learnt another important lesson. The people we go to advice for; are not the hard, practical one who can tell you exactly what to do, but to the listeners, least bossy and dominant people we know.

Another very useful thing related to toastmaster is the need to be brief. I listen to anybody with picture of timer's stop-watch in my mind. I listen with intent while green card is on. Tend to lose focus in yellow card and then just cease to listen in red zone.

This is also one of the rare area where my wife too need to work upon. Her time exceeds in the speech.  Remember , RARE is the key word here. I always stress on this Rare whenever giving suggestion for improvement to her.

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Dear friends, I'll give you a very practical advice. All of you should enroll your wife or Girl friend in Toastmaster (And you can also thank me later, Mr. VP membership. ). I'll ensure that you'll be made speech evaluator for her. I have the powers you know, I'm the new associate VP education.

We'll have an ultimate win-win solution. Women will be happy that for the first time men are actually listening to them.

And the men would be ecstatic that finally............ women are getting at point in less than 7 min

Thank you all for listening to me even during red card.

Over to you Mr. Toastmaster.

Now that I think of it, I don't this speech very much. I actually liked my previous speech better. The content was not great and somehow it feels disjointed.

One of the reason why I had a long gap after this speech. Somehow in this rush of completing toastmaster speeches I've been compromising on content.