TOASTMASTER PROJECT SPEECH 8 – WISDOM

Toastmaster Project speech 8

I delivered my Project 8 Speech on using visual aids effectively at city of Perth Toastmaster Club and won the Best Prepared Speaker Award for the session.

The tips and ideas for creating your Project speech 8 are discussed in the previous blog.

This speech was about how wisdom is available in day to day life and activities, it was about how even a small thing like pen, pencil can teach us important lessons of life.

 The visuals used were

• Paper of the size of $50
• $50 note
• Pencil and eraser
• Toastmaster Lantern

Before you start the speech make sure that the above visuals are readily available and also not visible to the audience.  I kept the visuals on the lantern and the lantern was on my side. The lantern (none of the audience thought that the lantern is a prop) easily blended into the scene with almost nobody suspecting that this can be a prop.  In the speech the use of props are marked in red.

Wisdom

Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. ” These are the famous lines of Samuel Coleridge.

Water is a basic necessity for our survival. It adds years to your life. But we have to be told to drink.

Wisdom is the next level of necessity. It will add life to your years.

Dear Toastmasters and Guests, you can find water everywhere, but is wisdom so readily available. Yes it is. You can find it in everywhere even in the common day to day things. Only we have to be open ourselves to receive it. 

[Show the $50 note]

This is a $50 currency note. Suppose I say I will give it to you. Will you take it? Yes you will.

What if I fold it and give it to you? Will you still take it? Yes you will.

What if I throw it? Will you still take it? Yes you will.

[Show the piece of paper]

Now the same thing I do with this piece of paper?  What will you do? Probably you will let it be there or pick up to drop it in the waste paper basket.

Why did we treat two things separately? Because one has value, other doesn’t.

Similarly so often in your lives, you will be crumpled, trampled, ill-treated, insulted, and yet, despite all that you will be still worth the same. Don’t let such things lower your self-esteem. Hold yourself high!

If you can hold yourself high, you will be treated like this money. If you let those to affect you, lower your self-esteem then you will end up in the waste paper basket. That’s the fine line between success and failure.

Having held your self-esteem you need to be live in peace with the world. And to live in peace with the world, what better object can there to teach you that are other than this humble pencil. [bring the pencil]

This pencil can write many correct answers, write interesting stories, speeches or draw beautiful pictures. But can it do it all alone? No, it needs a hand to write.

Similarly you can do great things, but there has to be a hand guiding you, that hand is your conscience. It may take guidance from your Teacher, Philosopher, Mentor. But it is your conscience that makes the decision how your life pencil is used.

Your conscience will lead it to create things that will make the world a beautiful place to live or make the world a hell.

Now and then, the pencil becomes blunt and can’t write properly. What do we do? We stop writing and use a sharpener or knife to sharpen it.

This makes the pencil suffer a little, but then, it becomes capable of writing again. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains, sorrows and setbacks, because they will only make you a better person.

What if the pencil makes a mistake? It needs the help of an eraser to rub out any mistakes and correct it. [Show the eraser]

This means you must be open to accept your mistakes; Only if you are humble enough to accept the mistake, then only you can find the eraser.

Friends, the things we use and do in the toastmaster have great wisdom in them. Take the example of this Lantern. [Show the lantern, if possible pick it] This teaches us the most important value of the world.

For our first few speech we use this lantern to keep our notes to guide us, we sometimes even use them as our support. As we progress we step back making room, then keep them aside and move on to face the world. But still it is waiting there, watching with the notes for our support if we need them. 

We therefore show respect to this Lantern, and try not to keep it empty during the toastmaster meeting.

Similarly our parents, stands between us and the world as we try to learn the way to live, they provide us the support.  As we grow up they slowly move to the side to allow us to face the world on our own. But they always watch us ready to support whenever we need them. We should show them the respect; because they are the reasons for what we are and try not to keep them alone.

Dear Toastmasters and Guests, don’t you agree that there is a profound wisdom underlying common objects.  Every object we can see has some wisdom to impart. Only you have to open your mind for it.

As Paulo Coelho once said “It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them”.

------------Mr Toastmaster ----