Toastmaster CC3 - Example P3

How many of you want to stay fit, but do not have a regular exercise routine? How many of you here take 'new year resolutions' but do not follow them? How many of you have personal goals for which you hardly spend any time? In the next 7 minutes, you are going to learn simple techniques to achieve your goals faster.

“Studies show that it takes 3 weeks to develop a habit, 6 months for it to become a part of your life and just 1 week to give up”. Every year people take New Year resolutions. Do you know how many stick to it? Only 1 in every 10 people stick to their so called 'new year resolutions'.

Good Afternoon fellow Toastmasters, and guests. Today, I’m going to share with you a technique which you can use to successfully achieve our goals… a technique that you can use to stick to your New Year resolutions… One Step at a time.

What do we do when we take New Year resolutions? Let us take for example, a simple resolution of losing your weight and staying fit. The moment we take a resolution like that, we set our alarm clock to ring at 4.30 a.m in the morning. We start with Yoga for 1 hour. Then you sign-up for a costly membership in a nearby gym. We go to gym for another 2 hours. You stop eating anything that an ordinary human being eats. You start taking only salad or cut fruits for your meal. I’ve seen people carrying a huge tiffin carrier to work before their resolution,but they start to carry a small Tupperware box after taking resolution.

You’ll do this for a week and or may be a month and give up because it is practically unsustainable. Who in the world would find 2 hours every day for exercising – unless your full time job is to maintain your body like athletes. Who in the world can sacrifice their cravings to eat food like pizza, icecream and cakes? After the 2 weeks, you’ll start getting philosophical thoughts “Dude! What is the purpose of living in this world? Is it worth sacrificing your sleep? Is it worth sacrificing good food? At the end of the day, everyone is going to die and may be, you’ll die faster. Is it all worth it?”.

All of us know,when we try to climb up fast, we’ll give up fast.

Let me give you another example which is near and dear to all of us - Toastmasters. I’ve seen people joining Toastmasters wanting to be become DTM in 2 years or Toastmasters wanting to master of communication skills in just a year. They’ll start attending meetings of 4 clubs a week. Whenever they see a flyer that says “educational sessions”, they’ll be there. They participate in all contests. You can see them all over the place. And all of a sudden, they vanish. They delete themselevs from toastmasters whatsapp group. They stop responding back to emails and they don’t even pick up calls from Toastmasters.

I have gone through the same set of challenges whenever I want to develop a new habit. I had tried to give up non vegetarian food several times in the past… but, failed miserably because I was trying to take “Too many steps at a time”.

But one of my friend, Amit, got a chance to read the book “My experiments with Truth”, by Mahatma Gandhi. Immediately, he got inspired and wanted to become a pure vegetarian like Gandhi. However, he didn’t become a “pure vegetarian”, the next day. At first he stopped eating meat – I continued to have eggs & sea food. It went on for a year or so. Then he stopped eating eggs and sea food...but, he continued to have milk and other dairy products. Later, he stopped eating Pizzas, he stopped eating cake, curd and ice creams - he became a pure vegetarian. It took him about 5 years to transition from a non-vegetarian to a pure-vegetarian. If he had tried to stop eating meat, eggs and Pizzas on day one, he would’ve soon given up to become a Pure Vegetarian.

Fellow Toastmasters, Be it reducing your weight.. be it starting your own business.. be it getting a good girl friend or a boyfriend...Achieving your goal or sticking to your new year resolutions… is like eating an orange. If you try to eat the entire orange in one go, you can’t… you may probably get choked to death. If you try to eat one slice at a time… you can finish eating it soon.
I encourage all of you to take … One step at a time… for results that last for a life time.