Goals

You know your goals.
Find a place that can meet up with them.
Serve your obligation.
Then change if you have to.

Toastmasters and Speaker Roles

June 2nd, 2009. Today I will be the Toastmaster of the meeting.
I was stopped from being toastmaster and the speaker at the same time for the worry of taking too many roles at the same time.
I thought I shuold be the one that knows the best how much I can take.

I mean, what I really want to say is this...
Only people who go to extremes get extreme results.
Extreme results are what I want; extremes are what I will do.

Evaluation Contest and Humorous speech contest

Fact:
1. Contest will be held in October, still 4 full months to go.
2. Haishuo will join both.

To do:
1. Finish a Script with purpose first.
2. Add humor.

Strategies:
1. For the prepared speech, be sure you find your personal speciality. The niche that no one can ever replace.
2. Evaluate every single speech in the following meeting as if you are assigned the job.
3. Evaluate your own speech every time after present it and have your evaluation script present on this blog.
4. Finish related modules and patterns of evaluation.

090522 An Insight

Don't blame on others for not giving you the suggestions and comments that you need.
They have perfect rights to say whatever they would love to.
Don't blame on others for not pointing out your weakness and flaws.
They might do so for your own good.

If you still need others to improve, then you are the one that needs to reflect and repent.
Who grants you the right to rely on others for your improvements?
That will be highly irresponsible.

Haishuo.
Don't be a loser.
Be responsible for yourself.
You don't have the right to show the performance that's not up to your standard.

Remember.
Dream. Responsibility. Reputation.

090522 Evaluation on C5

My C5 was evaluated by Justin Wu.
He made suggestions for better time control, clear message, main-purpose and practice more.

Yes, practice more.
I was really glad that he mentioned that to me after the meeting in private.
But to tell the truth, I would be happier if he blasted that out in his evaluation.

It's true that I didn't really practice that much on my C5.
After getting my script done, I had only practiced for 1.5 hours.
Indeed I had to practice more, and I was surely not satisfied with my performance.

To tell the truth, I had no specific purpose or message to deliver on that speech.
Or, maybe I should put it in this way:
My main purpose is to entertain my audience, and that's just what I really wanna do.
I should be myself. Do what I really want to do.

My C5 was an experiment, and the result was exactly what I expected.
I was wondering if I would still get that many praises and encouragements with poor performance.
The answer was yes, and that's not what it should be.
It was good for my self-esteem and proud, but not good for growth and improvement.

I am looking for a place where people will be devil's advocates to my performance.
I don't need that many encouragements.
That's why the time my pen wagging is always the time people talk about suggestions/improvements.
I should practice more, and show genuine improvements.
Am I good now? I might be.
However, if I do not excel myself, then I am nothing but a loser.
Don't be a loser. Haishuo! Outperform myself!

Am I doing something that even surprises myself?
Don't get up to the stage I you find my answers negative.

C5 delivered on 090519 script

Finally I can be here without talking about being Monk. I am going to share a real supernatural experience today. So if you want to take an early tea break. Please do.

September 2001, I was in a club which specialized in mountain-climbing and summer-camp organizing. My active and sometime hyper character made me president for event-organizing. At that time the whole club was trying to organize an event to welcome freshmen of the year. I had an inspiration. I took out a map and marked all the locations where people had ghost-spotting experience in these two universities, TsingHua and ChiaoTung. As I speculated, it could form a loop. The activity went like this. We put candles and a story on every stop that we would make. As we arrived, we lit up the candle, read the story, and let the audience feel the atmosphere for one to two minutes, blew out the candle, then left. We decided to hold this activity for two days in a row, so that more people may join.

The first day was quite a success. More than 30 people joined. We even had to split the group into two teams for better effect. Things were different on the second day. The sky was cloudy. The moon could only be seen from time to time. As we arrived the rally point for departure, we found there were only 8 freshmen students waiting for us. 8, that’s a small team. We decided to lead them with only 3 club members, Jack, John, and Roy. I took the lead, John by their side, and Jack took care of the back to ensure no one got lost.

Before I continue; another piece of information. According to the 8-character Chinese fortune-telling technique, every person has different weight of spirit. The scale goes from 2兩1 to 7兩1. The heavier the spirit is; the richer the person might be. The lighter the spirit is, the more likely the bearer will encounter supernatural experience. The split-line is 3兩8. This time, John was the highest as 6兩4, mine was in the middle as 4兩4, Jack was the lowest as 2兩6 .

We set forth from ChiaoTung University to Tsinghua Univeristy. Our main route was in the mountain hill in the back of Tsinghua university’s campus. There was a pond which had taken three lives by drowning them in one single time. As planned, we went from one location to the next, lit up the candles then blew them out. Tension kept rising with those haunting stories we told. As we were leaving for the last stop, Jack ran to me in a rush and pulled me aside. I was a little bit angry by his reckless move and nervous facial expression in front of our participants. I signed John to lead the team ahead, stopped, and tried to figure out what he wanted to let me know. As the team moved further, he whispered with trembling crying voice:”Roy, something was following us”. I urged him to control his emotion and caught up with the team. I dragged him to the final location with me and found John had already finished reading the story. He walked to us to ensure everything was fine. Jack begged me stop the activity, as the best part we have arranged was about to come: a dark path in the forest where no light would get in. I promised him that things will be fine. I rearranged the team formation. John took the lead, and Jack and I stayed behind. As I blew the candle out. I knew that’s one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made in my life.

Darkness fell around us, John led the team ahead. In no time I sensed something staring at me from behind. I tried to turn my head and found out, but I just couldn’t. The team was getting further, and I could only try to catch up. Suddenly, I felt something cold crawling up from my left leg, all the way up through my thigh, my back, to my shoulder. As it reached my shoulder, it became heavier and heavier, made each step of mine more and more difficult. I tried to turn my head, but again I couldn’t. I could only see a dark shadow lingering by my left shoulder with the corner of my eye. Until we approached the end of the path, suddenly, the weight was lifted. I turned my head, only seeing Jack’s blank look. He looked at me and said: “It’s gone, right?”

We finished the activity as soon as we can and rushed to the temple in front of ChiaoTung university. We could only exchange our experience after some cans of beer. However, we were even more scared after we shared our experience. For I felt it all the way up from my left side, and Jack was the opposite, the right. We concluded we might have run into something pretty tired and decided to crawl all the way up and rest between us for a while.

2009 Prepared speech contest: Question to ask yourself

感想那類的東西請到這邊
這篇是準備比賽時被提點的問題

這兩個問題是Jim Key問我的
1. If you had to sum up the message of your speech in one or two brief sentences, what would it be?
2. What will the audience be compelled to think, feel, or do differently after they've heard your speech?

這三個問題則是Jock Elliot在比賽之後問我的

1. Were you happy with your speech and the way you delivered it?

2. Is this the highest level that you have achieved?

3. Was it a fair result in your opinion and the opinion of your friends?

這五個問題對我有很大的幫助
上面的兩個問題讓我重新思考了我演講的目的
也點出演講中最重要的重點：你想傳達什麼？
下面的三個問題則讓我調整了我的心態