Unforeseen benefits of having a go!

Do you ever feel that you need to step outside your comfort zone but feel totally unprepared for it?

I had the same apprehensive feeling when I arrived at Toastmasters last night to suddenly find myself in a 'Speakers Evaluation' Contest along with 4 other brave souls.

I was totally unprepared, feeling very flat after a hard weekend of training & not mentally ready for anything new..but what the heck I entered the competition all the same after heaps of encouragement....guess who drew the card to go first...moi.........just to add a bit more pressure..[more on that later].

So we listen attentively to an entertaining 5-7 minute speech from Anita about home DIY male antics & how things went wrong...and then we had 5 minutes to complete our evaluation of her speech using a set format.

After frantically collecting my thoughts, writing a few key points & getting ready to present my evaluation it gave me an adrenalin rush & got me going...

As it turned out, going first was a huge benefit as it gave me an opportunity to compare & assess my performance against the others...it was really obvious to me who was the clear winner on the night..Ms Stacey F who gave a very polished performance.

My result: a really surprising Bronze Medal...3rd place..I was stunned but delighted.

The moral of the story..have a go, what have I got to loose? As it turned out, I gained a lot, learned a lot & got a certificate to prove it...so when in doubt.........feel the fear and do it anyway.

Cheers

Rossco

Getting better and wiser each day.