Serving your Higher Cause
Haishuo Lee
If I could show you a simple way that you can keep yourself fully motivated for your whole officer term, would you be interested? Would you? Great!
The night when spring convention ended, I wrote letters to all friends that helped me along the way, especially previous 2008 world finalists. I was surprised to have so much of their help, and I truly appreciated what they did for a friend that had no more than a few email correspondences. Then something occurred to me. If they were all world finalists, and they were willing to help me revise my draft, I should send their email addresses to Judy and asked her to reach out for their help, in that way, Judy might have a better chance of winning on inter-district contest. So I did, and days ago, I had forward the mail to Alice.
Looking back, I knew why I did it. Not because I was noble, nor because I was humble, but because I was selfish. Why? Because I was serving my higher cause. Every time I was abroad and presented my research paper, I always put the map of Taiwan and its location in the world on my first slide. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t support nationalism, and I am not a racist. I am just really proud of being a Taiwanese, and I would love my audience to know the lovely country I am from. So what’s my higher cause? Yes, I want to glorify Taiwan on the international stage, and since this year I am not good enough, it will be great for me to help whoever is going. So that’s why I did it. I am serving my higher cause.
What’s a higher cause? Don’t ask me. I might not be able to provide your answer. Ask a parent who runs into the burning house; you have the answer “Children”. Ask a fireman who runs into the burning house; you have the answer “duty”. Ask a miser who runs into a burning house; you have the answer ”Money”. Ask a group people who sacrifice their Saturday afternoon for an excellent officer training; you have the answer “Toastmasters”! The very fact that you are sitting right here, right now, means that you love the club and you will be devoting to it, right? So, people do have different higher causes, and you have to know yours.
So what’s good about higher causes? One of the things you’re really going to love about higher cause is how much energy it can give you when you face challenges or problems. It’s the ultimate reason for your motivation. Imagine how good you feel when you know where you are going, why you are going and what keeps you going, isn’t that wonderful? What’s better is: you don’t have to go and search for it like a quest. It’s there, within your very own soul. The only thing you have to do is open up yourself, and honestly tell yourself what you really want and why you want it.
For example: How to identify your higher cause in Toastmaster? Ask yourself these questions: “What’s important for you in your club success, why are they important?” “Why did you take the challenge and devote your time and effort to be a club officer? What do you want to achieve, why?” You’ll know your higher cause as you answer yourself these questions. The sooner you identify it, the sooner you will turn your engine of dreams and passion to extreme power. The better you integrate every member’s higher cause, the stronger your club will be. I’m not telling you that your club will be a huge success in a blink, but let’s make this a beginning.
Now, I would love to serve my higher cause again. As a member in Toastmasters for 9 months up to now, the most surprising thing that I’ve ever heard is “Divisions can never cooperate really well as they have to compete at least twice a year”. It might be true, but I know that in the face of shared honor and glory, people always unite. For me, it’s not important that someone from any division win a district championship any year, what’s important is that someone from district 67 wins a trophy on the international stage and shows the world that people from Taiwan know how to speak. It’s really important, is it not? If we all help Alice, then we know we are standing together for our glory and honor. Does that seem fair and good enough? You might want to invite Alice to your club to practice or at least walk to her later and tell her how much you would love t o support her. So here is my plea. Let us all stand together; let us persist. Let us keep trying and improving, and one day we will show the world that even non-native speakers can be excellent speakers; and language barrier shall not be the barrier for great minds alike.
Our Division E governor Justin once told me, “When the world champion Jim Key attended the convention in Taiwan, he told us that ’Toastmasters speakers don’t say thank you when ending their speeches, because their speeches are gifts for their audience.’” Sincerely, I hope this one could be a gift for you, not only for Alice, but for all of you.” As you sit here, listening to me, you might want to let your partners know what your higher cause is, and how you want to achieve it. Why don’t you do that after the training or sometime in the near future, and make it a gift for your partners, members, and of course, your friends?
