Public Speaking

Held a speech today at Toastmasters. I have been a member for the past year and it has been a great experience. I feel so much more confident speaking in front of an audience. Most clubs meet weekly. Once you join, you will follow a manual. Mine is called ‘Competent Communicator’. It has 10 projects. Each project has a different focus. One might be about speech organization, another on about using visual aides. You can chose the topic yourself. My speech today was project number 9: Persuade your audience’ and my topic was: Alive with work. The speech went well. Mostly I am criticized for not showing enough emotions. That seems weird to me, since I feel that I am very emotional. But I guess that feeling that you are showing your emotions is not the same as showing your emotions. One more reason for me to go: to become aware of my blind spots.

Are you interested in finding out about your blind spots?

Coaching at Craigslist Foundation Bootcamp

This Saturday I was one of the lucky CTI coaches that got to coach visitors at the Craigslist Foundation Boot camp in Berkeley. I coached 4 clients, 30 minutes each. I had a great time coaching and seeing the transformation take place in some cases, in others I hope a seed got sowed to move the clients in the direction they want to. I feel grateful to CTU, the Craigslist Foundation and the clients to make this possible, to show up and to give coaching a try.

I asked 2 clients if they would be willing to start a blog and one of them already sent me her link! That is one gratifying aspect of coaching - clients taking action.

Friday the 13th...

Today is Friday the 13^th. Some people will feel it’s their lucky day, others will be living in fear and anticipation. I will declare this day as the "day the fog disappeared".

I live in the foggiest area in San Francisco and it seems like forever since I’ve seen the sun.

Weather does impact me for sure. I feel like staying in and don’t want to go on my walks, even though I know that they are great for me. Not only physically, but also mentally. Another aspect that determines how my day goes: weather.

My day is also determined by the kind of emails I get, how many and from whom. And what’s going on on Facebook.

Lot’s of outside factors determine what I do, IF I do and when I do. And of course how I feel. I am sure there is more. I don’t want to go looking for more. At work it’s the same. Your day is determined by meetings, the way people treat you, deadlines and what day of the week it is.

What other factors impact your work? What will you declare today, independent of the circumstance?

Sticking it to the man

2 stories broke within the last 48 hours and both of them went ‘viral’, The first story was about the flight attendant Mr. Slater of JET BLUE who first cursed out the passengers over the intercom and then slid down the emergency chute with beer bottle in hand. The second one, which turned out to be a hoax, was about Jenny who quit her job via dry erase board.

Both stories resonated with the majority of people and Mr. Slater and Jenny are celebrated as people who did what most of us want to do. For me the stories are about justice and getting back to people that treat you unjustly. On a bigger scale though the stories are about being authentic and true to yourself. To no longer pretend that things are OK, even if they aren’t.