What is the WHY?

On Feb 27th, my Toastmasters home club held the International Speech contest as well as the Evaluation contest. Normally, I’m pretty good with getting a draft ready and keeping enough time for preparation. I have always believed that it doesn’t matter if I win/lose or if my speech is far from perfect. I don’t want people to say that I wasn’t prepared…I will always respect the time of my evaluators and the audience.

But this time something was different. For some reason, I was struggling to pen down any thoughts for my speech. I knew what I wanted to talk about, but it took forever to put my idea on paper. It was almost as if I had severe writer’s block…it felt like I was having an internal battle. I had butterflies in my stomach the day before and couldn’t sleep much that night. Fortunately, the judges liked my speech and I won both categories. YAY!!

I have watched a ton of YouTube videos of past champions and speakers. Almost every one of them has mentioned that before you embark on a journey towards becoming the World Champion of Public Speaking, you should really THINK. Think about the WHY. Why do you want to do this? Why do you want to participate in the contests? Is it the fame or recognition that attracts you? Is it the adrenaline rush of speaking in front of a large audience?

I have thought about my ‘why’ for a long time and have come up with two reasons. Firstly, I feel that I should share my story with people. You never know how or who your story can impact. Maybe it will make a difference in someone's life. More importantly, I am one of the few people from my country that are part of a district and can participate in speech contests. I do feel a responsibility to represent Nepal in the world arena and get some visibility for the Toastmasters movement there.

Wish me luck for the next rung of the contests!