The Secret-Toastmasters international project two

Good Evening Toastmaster ,fellow toast masters and honored guests.

It is written in the toastmaster manual that in case of a prepared speech, one must begin by doing something to arouse the curiosity of the audience or they may get bored and not really listen. But I disagree. I would not mind if some of you were to wander off in my speech. Because I am going to tell you a secret. One that all of us know but never acknowledge. And this secret can change your life.

I begin this tale with a story. In early 1940s a daughter was prematurely born as the 20^th of 22 children to a black couple in Tennyssee, USA. Despite the complications, because the couple were black, the local white hospital refused to treat the child. And because the couple were very poor, they could not afford to spend money going to the doctor in the neighboring county. But the child was a born fighter and she survived. However tragedy struck soon when their daughter was diagnosed with polio. “She will never be able to walk”, was what the doctors told her parent. But the mother hoped against hope and took the child for weekly therapy sessions. By the age of ten the child could walk with leg braces. Pretty much like the young Forest Gump in that immortal movie. Then one day the mother returned home to find Wilma playing basketball without the leg braces. Some called it a miracle. I think human will had triumphed.

Why some may ask is this story relevant. It is important as I look around and I find so many people miserable with where they are, unhappy with who they are. They stand convinced that there is something lacking in them and they deserve all the misery. I wonder if they are right?

Let us all look inside. Are there things that make us unhappy, are there things we want to change? And are these the very things that we believe we cannot change ourselves.

Yes, my friends, there are things that we want to do but never get around to doing it because we think its just too big a task for us. We are intimidated by the odds even before we start.

But there is a truth is that we all forget. The secret that we never say out loud. And that truth is that our happiness is in our own hands. Do you believe this? Even if you do not say to yourself, My happiness is in my hands.

What do I mean by happiness is in our own hands. Does it mean we should accept whatever happens to us. Does it mean that even after a particularly bad day in office you don’t have the right to be unhappy. Maybe your code just refused to work. Or you think your efforts are not being appreciated and you got unwarranted criticism. Am I telling you to still be happy?

No, while you have the right to be miserable, I insist that you realize that your happiness is within you. No one else controls your happiness. We have within us to end up where-ever we want to be.

Human will has always had the upper hand. We as humans wonder –“Can I do it?” and frequently fail to convince even ourselves that we can achieve it. I ask all of you, why don’t we ask “Why can’t I do it”. Because I can assure the day we do, we will ourselves realize that all our limits are made by ourselves only. We believe in our limitations and so they exist.

Helen Keller was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She did it because she did not believe in her limitations.

There is a band that I listen to on the web sometimes. The funny thing is that the band consists of only one person who is the singer, the lead guitarist, the sound technician as well as the drummer. Only one person in the band. I think you could all imagine how bad it would sound.

The band is deafboyone and the only member of the band is deaf. Imagine being a musician and not being able to hear. Yet Deafboy one makes wonderful music. The lyrics of one song are “I am standing across the crowded bar. I can see what she wants, But you. You have to shout!”. The deaf singer instead of being unhappy pokes fun at all of us who cannot understand sign language. Because he does not need to hear. He can simply see and understand.That is the power of human will and belief in our innate abilities.

Who are you all after-all? What is your inheritance ,your identity? You all are humans bestowed with free will and intelligence far above animals.

They say man is an ape. But are apes human? All of you must know that chimpanzees our closest relatives can be taught language and how to communicate. But do you know, psychologists have realized that even when a chimpanzee has been taught how to ask for a fruit through signs, he just wont do it. They just don’t get the utility of a language.

And that’s why I say while man may have evolved from monkeys, we are no apes. As humans you are not bound to follow the herd. And those who do ,please, please quit the herd mentality. Stop monkeying around

So how do you go about claiming your happiness. Firstly tell , yourself that only you are responsible for your happiness. They say we let others be responsible for our unhappiness by giving them that power.

Take it back and hold your happiness within yourself.

Secondly believe in your abilities and your strength. You are not another human. You are A HUMAN, capable of splitting the atom and conquering the deepest oceans.

Thirdly think how you can achieve your dreams. Plan and if you think its possible take that step towards achieving them. Not all who set about trying to achieve their dreams succeed, but I assure you all of those who try feel satisfied.

I started with a tale about Wilma, the polio affected black girl in Jim Crow South. Wilma was actually a real person. After having taught herself to walk, Wilma became the local school basketball star.

But her achievements and fame do not stop there. In 1960 Wilma Rudolph became the first American lady to win three gold medals in the Olympics’ track and field events. The girl who was not supposed to walk set a world record and became the fastest runner on this planet.

Over to you MOC Kartick