Here are some ideas for Meeting themes and TableTopics !
Based on the email address on his web page, I'm guessing these great ideas came from someone named Rick Clements. (I've sent him an email to find out more about how he came up with the ideas and where he is located.)
What his list points out is that there are no shortage of ideas for GREAT Toastmaster meetings ! Which means that there is no reason we can't all have GREAT meetings !
My personal philosophy is that, like anything, you will get out of Toastmasters what you put into it ! And you will enjoy it more if you "make it your own" through creatively expanding on existing ideas and pushing the envelope of what has been done in the past.
Try something new! Even if it doesn't work... you will learn and come up with ideas to make it better next time !
Showing posts with label stretch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stretch. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
How to be a GREAT audience...!
Marketing Guru Seth Godin brings up an interesting idea in his recent post that can be applied directly to Toastmasters !
Seth points out (indirectly) that, as an audience member, you get out of an event exactly what you put into it ! How true is that !?!?
And it can apply to any other area of your life. In fact, Seth points out...
Stretch your comfort zone... as a speaker, as a leader and even as an audience member !
Seth points out (indirectly) that, as an audience member, you get out of an event exactly what you put into it ! How true is that !?!?
And it can apply to any other area of your life. In fact, Seth points out...
Great audiences not only get more energy and more insight and more focused answers to their questions, they also get better jobs and find better relationships. Because the skills and the attitude are exactly the same.It is the same whether you are IN the audience or if you are GIVING the speech.... you get out of it exactly what you put into it !
Stretch your comfort zone... as a speaker, as a leader and even as an audience member !
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Self Regulation & Good Constraints
This post is a followup to the earlier post on Fixed vs. Growth Mindset (click here in case you missed it).
************* The Next Step to a Growth Mindset *****************
Just understanding what it means to have a Growth Mindset will do you no good if you don't actually stretch outside your comfort zone to the point of encountering obstacles (or "learning experiences"). Of course, stretching outside your comfort zone is, by definition, not comfortable but this article will give you some ideas that might help.
Clearly Toastmasters is a big part of extending our comfort zone for most of us and I have found some articles that might help you overcome some things that might have been holding you back.
Senia Maymim, editor of Positive Psychology News Daily (http://pos-psych.com/), has written a series of articles that will help you build your "Mental Muscle", develop positive habits and improve your life.
This article by Senia Maymim (part 1 in the series) talks about self-regulation ...
This is very true ... as long as you don't get hit with the "Whiplash effect". For example, if you restrain yourself from eating a piece of candy offered by your co-worker you will feel good about yourself. This, as Senia points out, will reinforce your good feelings about yourself.
The "Whiplash effect" comes in when you don't eat the candy.... and you don't eat anything else...(thinking you are "being good")... until you get home and then you "treat yourself " to a whole bag of chips or a tub of ice cream! It is important, especially with food, to substitute healthy habits for poor ones while, at the same time, you build your personal self-regulation power! In our candy example, this means eating a salad and perhaps a snack of celery so that you would not be as hungry when you got home (and less likely to make a bad choice).
This article by Senia is part 2 in the series and it talks about using "Good Constraints" to improve your life. The article talks about making the right decisions and not constantly re-visiting them every time the situation comes up. This improves your focus while freeing up mental energy that can be better applied to other things.
Again, returning to our candy example... if you had made the "Good Constraint" decision that you NEVER eat candy, then you would be less likely to "reward yourself" later in the day!
I hope these two articles about Self Regulation and Good Constraints will help you think of ways to stretch and Grow your Mindset and create a new (much larger) comfort zone !
Let us know how you applied it to Toastmasters in the comments section !
************* The Next Step to a Growth Mindset *****************
Just understanding what it means to have a Growth Mindset will do you no good if you don't actually stretch outside your comfort zone to the point of encountering obstacles (or "learning experiences"). Of course, stretching outside your comfort zone is, by definition, not comfortable but this article will give you some ideas that might help.
Clearly Toastmasters is a big part of extending our comfort zone for most of us and I have found some articles that might help you overcome some things that might have been holding you back.
Senia Maymim, editor of Positive Psychology News Daily (http://pos-psych.com/), has written a series of articles that will help you build your "Mental Muscle", develop positive habits and improve your life.
This article by Senia Maymim (part 1 in the series) talks about self-regulation ...
Self-regulation is your personality process to exert control over your thoughts, feelings, and actions. .... if you do ANYTHING that requires self-regulation, then that makes it EASIER for you to have self-regulation in EVERYTHING.
This is very true ... as long as you don't get hit with the "Whiplash effect". For example, if you restrain yourself from eating a piece of candy offered by your co-worker you will feel good about yourself. This, as Senia points out, will reinforce your good feelings about yourself.
The "Whiplash effect" comes in when you don't eat the candy.... and you don't eat anything else...(thinking you are "being good")... until you get home and then you "treat yourself " to a whole bag of chips or a tub of ice cream! It is important, especially with food, to substitute healthy habits for poor ones while, at the same time, you build your personal self-regulation power! In our candy example, this means eating a salad and perhaps a snack of celery so that you would not be as hungry when you got home (and less likely to make a bad choice).
This article by Senia is part 2 in the series and it talks about using "Good Constraints" to improve your life. The article talks about making the right decisions and not constantly re-visiting them every time the situation comes up. This improves your focus while freeing up mental energy that can be better applied to other things.
Again, returning to our candy example... if you had made the "Good Constraint" decision that you NEVER eat candy, then you would be less likely to "reward yourself" later in the day!
I hope these two articles about Self Regulation and Good Constraints will help you think of ways to stretch and Grow your Mindset and create a new (much larger) comfort zone !
Let us know how you applied it to Toastmasters in the comments section !
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