When I joined Toastmasters International seven months ago I didn’t know how much I would grow and how much fun I’d have doing it! Toastmasters has been an amazing experience and I want to tell you just what’s so great about it.
Toastmasters International is an educational organization that teaches communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. What I have gained from Toastmasters is all that and more. Being a Toastmaster is investing in myself and my best possible future. This blog is all about living a great, happy, fun, and full life and Toastmasters is one way I make that awesome life happen.
In addition to communication, public speaking, and leadership skills I have enjoyed quite a few unexpected and amazing benefits- here’s my top 3:
Confidence
Speaking in Toastmasters provides new challenges and plenty of opportunities to be proud of your accomplishments. The more you expand your skills and talents, the more confidence you have in yourself!
Self confidence builds trust in others. People want to listen to someone who is confident in what they have to say and how they say it.
When I started in Toastmasters I wasn’t lacking confidence; I had a healthy dose of self-confidence that helped me get started in the club. What I didn’t expect was how my confidence would grow and where that new confidence would take me. Thanks to Toastmasters I’ve tried new things I wouldn’t have tried before.
Friendship
Toastmasters is a friendly environment where people are genuinely interested in each other. Toastmasters works because it’s welcoming, positive and supportive with each and every member playing a role in the every other member’s growth and success.
Join Toastmasters and you’ll find you’ve become friends with people you wouldn’t know otherwise. You get to know members and they get to know you as you learn to appreciate and encourage the best in everyone you meet.
I have many friends in my Toastmasters club, people I spend time with outside the club that I consider true friends. Some of these friends are very different from me and I have enjoyed getting to know my fellow Toastmasters well enough to consider them friends.
Encouragement
Every Toastmaster receives heaps of encouragement and the best part is you’re encouraged to be your best self. Every Toastmaster has inherent talents and a wonderfully unique perspective to share. Toastmasters is all about encouraging yourself and others to be as awesome as you can be.
As a Toastmaster you share specific, positive, and constructive feedback and by doing so invest in your fellow member’s success as much as your own. You celebrate the victory of every member’s accomplishments.
I have especially enjoyed helping my fellow members develop through encouraging them in their progress in the Toastmasters program. It’s a wonderful experience to be part of something bigger than myself and watch my fellow Toastmasters grow!
I’m grateful for the confidence, friendship and encouragement that comes with being a member a Toastmasters. In addition to these great benefits there are many other awesome skills I’ve gained in Toastmasters such as:
- becoming a more effective communicator
- improving my grammar and vocabulary
- exercising time management skills
- being a great listener
- learning to give specific, positive, and helpful feedback
- speaking to inspire
- speaking to entertain
- speaking to inform (without boring!)
- give presentations that don’t suck!
- responding intelligently to impromptu questions
- leading meetings with authority and assurance
- being heard and understood when I speak
- leading by example
There are many benefits of being a Toastmaster and I hope you check it out but if Toastmasters is not for you I encourage you to challenge yourself in a different venue that helps you learn and grow. Go out there and live your best life!
I love your comments! Have you ever tried Toastmasters? What did you enjoy most about being a Toastmasters? If you haven’t tried it, would you? Why or why not?