I gave my Project 10 Speech 2 months back. This draft was lying there for a long time now. I have been pre-occupied with my personal and professional commitments that writing posts on the blog almost took a second place and I could not return to it at all. But thats the past. I am back and I hope the posts are going to be regular hereon and so does my Toastmasters journey.
Inspire Your Audience
An inspirational speech motivates an audience to improve personally, emotionally, professionally, or spiritually and relies heavily on emotional appeal. It brings the audience together in a mood of fellowship and shared desire, builds the audience’s enthusiasm, then proposes a change or plan and appeals to the audience to adopt this change or plan.
The objectives of the Speech are:
- To inspire the audience by appealing to noble motives and challenging the audience to achieve a higher level of beliefs or achievement.
- Appeal to the audience’s needs and emotions, using stories, anecdotes and quotes to add drama.
- Avoid using notes.
This is the first speech which I recorded and I hope to do so in my subsequent speeches also. So, after the video do find the detailed transcript of the video below it. And please feel free to give your comments. Your comments are very important for me as they will help me improve and grow.
I am walking from this side of the room to the other side. I need to get to the other side. The other side of the room is my destination.(pause) It takes me few minutes to walk. But what if I walk faster and in fact, run. I am going to reach faster to the other side. Do I, on seeing the landmark, try to create my own benchmark. Or do I slog around. And crawl like a snails’ pace. What would I do? And what would you do?
Good Afternoon!!! Dear Toastmasters and Guests, there are some people who have chosen to conquer all fears and obstacles right in front of them and run faster than the one who has set the record earlier similar to what we used to do in our school, by competing to come first in the class. These are great people– Great people who create history, great people who had succeeded because they choose to keep fighting till they beat their own expectations.
One such man is Sachin Tendulkar. He set his own standards and made it happen in reality. When he was young, Tendulkar would practice for hours in the net. If he became exhausted, his coach, Archekar would place a one-rupee coin on the top of the stumps and the bowler who dismissed Tendulkar would get the coin. If tendulkar passed the whole session, Archekar will give him the coin. Tendulkar now considers the 13 coins he won then as some of his prized possessions. On 11 December, 1988, aged just 15 years, Tendulkar became the youngest cricketer to score a century in the first class cricket.
He challenged and exerted himself. He did finally become the one of the greatest ever cricketer in the history of the game.(pause) He made the first double century of the one-day international, played the maximum number of ODIs and tests for India, made highest number of centuries in both Tests and ODIs. He fought for what he believed in: To be the little master blaster. To be the king of all records. He will always be remembered, and recorded, in the annals of history, as the epitome of courage (pause), perseverance and devotion (pause).
Forget the greats, let us take a simple example. There was a young man (pause) His name?(pause) Deepak. He had just registered himself as a Toastmaster with the Orators Club. It took him more than a month to gather courage to deliver his P1. The evaluators gave lot of areas of improvement. He was disappointed. He was (pause) frustrated.
That night, he went home, feeling very sad. He pondered. He wondered. And he remembered the story of his icon, the paragon of cricket-Sachin Tendulkar. And he, Deepak, should try to learn from Sachin. He should learn from Sachin’s devotion and commitment. He too must not let obstacles or whatever problems or adversities stand in his way. He must, overcome, even the most difficult circumstances by giving as much speeches as possible. (pause pause) He was determined, not to let his nervousness become his nemesis. Not to let it become his Achilles Heel. He should forge ahead swiftly. (pause) Strongly. (pause pause) Yes, that’s what he would.do. He would try to ask for as much advise as possible from senior toastmasters. He is going to do table-topics wherever and whenever possible, in every meeting, in every club, grabbing every opportunity. He must deliver speeches as frequently as possible. He must conquer this fundamental weakness as though this is the last thing he’s going to do.(pause) He must have (pause) the spirit and enthusiasm of the great (pause) Sachin Tendulkar. He should adopt the charismatic qualities of his club president and beat the best club record of CC.
He practiced, and practiced and practiced. And he practiced until finally, one fine day, he is all set to deliver his P10 speech today. He knows that he is not the best, but he knows too that because he tried, he has improved and better the record. And that was what he sought: to improve, to overcome his own expectations and be a better communicator.
Dear Toastmasters and Guests, when we meet an opportunity, when we experience something new, there are two paths we can take. First we can say, “this is too much” and then retract, revert and retreat, wasting something more valuable than money – TIME. Or we can forge on with courage and tenacity by setting our own expectations and winnig over them. For those who forged on, they are men of foresight and determination. Men like Sachin Tendulkar. And there are toastmasters, like us, like you, like me. For if I’ve chosen to give up, to give up on myself, to give in to the pressure of my expectations and determination, then I would be wasting my time in toastmasters.
Therefore, let me remind you(pause), and myself, and everyone around, that for a seed to sprout and grow, it must exert tremendous effort to break out of its hard outer cover. And just like the seed, in order for us to sprout and grow, we must exert ourselves, forge ahead and break out of the hard tough obstacles that we faced to create histories.
I dream that with sincerity, conviction and righteousness, toastmasters make a difference.
I dream that with selfless desire to serve, toastmasters contribute to the development of our community, and ask nothing in return just like devoted and sincere Toastmaster, Reena Gujaral.
I dream that all of us here in this room will become virtuous leaders of tomorrow, the stars of future with zeal, enthusiasm and passion.
Join me and share this dream to create histories.
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