Split Personality Disorder

Here is a statistic you should know about. Watch the video below to learn more.

Book is ready

It is done!

After a year and a half I've finished That Warrior Spirit Book I. It's now available on Lulu.

I'm taking a deep breath here. Is it relief or anticipation? Have I really done the best I could or have I allowed my impatience to get the best of me?

Whatever. It is now out there.

Essential Skills Training

Being the captain of a men's team has proven to be challenging, so I've gone and made my life even more challenging by accepting a role as Event Manager for an upcoming weekend workshop called Essential Skills Training.

I've had a taste of the Essential Skills Training workshop through a couple of conference calls that I've been on. I have found them to be powerful and inspiring, and I've come away with some new tools. With a new year coming around the corner I've started setting goals in place for 2010 using what I've learned so far.

I've identified my top three areas of improvement and have started setting goals in those areas. Some times all these challenges I am taking on feel daunting. But - this is the best time of my life to be taking on these challenges; this is the time of my life to be totally reinventing myself.

Third speech

The Toastmasters chapter that I belong to has a club goal for all members to give at least three speeches. I and one other new member both gave our third speeches tonight.

One feedback I got after giving my second speech last week was to print my notes on a one-pager instead of on multiple index cards. Doing so would free up my hands so I could better express myself and would prevent the danger of dropping my cards and having them all go out of order.

I followed that advice tonight. I still created the index cards to help me memorize my speech and then I typed in my notes from the index cards into a one page document in my word processor. Although I had my one page notes with me at the lectern I did not refer to them. At one point I had to pause to remember where I was supposed to go next but I didn't have to look at my notes. That's a good thing because one of the objectives of Speech #3 is to give it without refering to notes.

My speech #3 is now done and delivered before the end of the year as per the goal I set myself last week. Tonight was our last meeting of the year. Next week we have a Christmas get-together and then we resume our regular meetings in January. My goal for 2010 is to complete the Competent Communicator maual and the Competent Leadership manual. That means giving seven more speeches.

Holiday Showcase

I did my first trade show this weekend at the TBDC Holiday Showcase. I met quite a few people there, mostly the other vendors. I'm growing my network.

Being at the trade show was a lot of stimulation and I sure needed my time after to recover. I don't know if the trade show thing is for me; breakfast networking events such as BNI work better for me despite the early morning start.

I won't write off doing more trade shows just from the one experience, but I'm not going to rush out to do another one too soon either.

Season begins

One of the signs that the Christmas season has started is when I start listening to Trans Siberian Orchestra music. That happened last week when I pulled my Christmas Eve and Other Stories CD off the shelf and started listening to it in my car.

Another sign is when we start rehearsing a new song for the Christmas Eve service. That happened tonight at rehearsal. We started learning a new song (new for us that is), called One King. It's a complex song with key signature changes and time signature changes, and it has a really nice melody. We listened to a CD recording of the song a couple of times to familiarize ourselves with it. If we get can get the show lights and a children's choir, we could do this song like Trans Siberian Orchestra.

My second speech

I gave my second speech at Toastmasters tonight. The title was "This Will Put Fur On Your Chest". Three guesses what that was about and the first and third guesses don't count.

The chapter I belong to has a club goal for every member to give three speeches. I am now two thirds of the way towards that goal. Next week will be our last meeting for the year so if I get my third speech ready for next week then I will have reached that goal.

Some of the feedback I received was:
-good use of humour
-interesting how I personified my cats
-nice conversational style and great storytelling

Instead of reading from my speech like I did for my Icebreaker I had prepared index cards. I made a point on an index card for each paragraph in my speech. The process helped me to memorize my speech. The only time I had to refer to my index cards, the only time that I wasn't sure where I was going next and had to refer to the cards was at the end. I didn't know where I was supposed to go next because I was finished and all I had to do was close it!

The feedback I got about my use of index cards was to write out my points on a single sheet of paper and leave it on the lectern. That would free up my hands so that I express myself better.

I think that I didn't spend any more time preparing for this speech than I did on my Icebreaker, but I did use my prep time differently. Maybe prepping for a speech doesn't have to take as much time as I think it will.