We had our Toastmaster’s club contest last night and it was great as usual. We had nine contestants all of which did excellent jobs. Unfortunately we only had four trophies. What this meant was that the five judges we had critiquing the performance of the contestants had to decide, in their own minds, who gave the best presentation. That is not an easy job, because everyone was good. The four contestants who were awarded the trophies just happened to perform a little better on this particular night – the others will have their glory at another time. There were really no losers – everyone was a winner because they chose to put themselves out there for all the world to see and do something that was out of their comfort zone and the audience was definitely a winner because they were privy to some wonderful entertainment.
In these types of situations, just like in life, what you do after your performance is really what counts. The contestants who went home with the trophies for this event feel proud and elated and ready to do it again, knowing that the next competition will be harder. The contestants who did not go home with the trophies – they have the challenge of deciding how they feel at this time – are they feeling dejection, rejection, self-pity, anger, disappointment, regret, – probably for a time, but let’s hope it’s only for a short time. Let’s hope that they very quickly realize that there will be more opportunities to take the trophy home, and work toward that end. This is the only way they can become winners in their own minds.
The same rule applies tothose of us who consider ourselves overweight. If we “fall off the wagon” so to speak, we needn’t beat ourselves up – we just need to get back up, dust ourselves off and start all over again. Focus on the goal, visualize reaching the goal, live as though we have reached the goal, and then take the trophy of SUCCESS and hold it dear, never forgetting how and why we won it, and continuing to strive for lifelong success.
Think Thin Thoughts
Adinear
Tags: Add new tag, anger, audience, contestants, critiquing, dejectin, disappointment, elated, entertainment, fall off the wagon, focus, goal, lifelong success, loser, opportunities, performance, presentation, regret, rejection, self-pity, Toastmasters, trophy, visualize, winner
October 21, 2008 at 3:19 pm |
[...] Skills: It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It Saved by rvwingerden on Tue 21-10-2008 The Winners vs The Winners Saved by freakydeaky59 on Mon 20-10-2008 SSP 2008 Video Presentation Saved by psychopunkpk1 on [...]