Toastmasters – Local “Outliers” Chapter Open to Guests and New Members Confidence in Communication to Overcome Life’s Challenges

With the new year you may be realizing that changes have occurred in your life that you now find are forcing your examination, understanding, and acceptance. Maybe you have been avoiding an issue, but reality now looms, revealing a variety of emotions – possibly alarming, sometimes opportunistic, certainly unavoidable. Author Daniel Goleman gave us perspective, saying, “The emotional brain responds to an event more quickly than the thinking brain.” It is natural for our first reaction to a change to be emotional, whether argumentative, sad, or maybe even glad.
Whether the change is opening a small tear or a major rift in life as you’ve known it, getting past the emotion is a first step. Filling the resulting “opportunities for adjustment” that life brings calls for analyzing and defining the need, then modifying plans, schedules, and our mindset to fill the resulting gaps. In my life, the last five years have brought one major change after another until I can’t even remember what life was like without having to always be in a problem-solving mode.
If this level of change is occupying your life or someone you know, communication is key to moving through it and beyond. First, of course, there are professionals who can help direct your coping mechanisms. As you may pursue that avenue, also learning to speak with confidence makes a major improvement to your mindset and will help you engage in, and survive, whatever 2023 brings. For several years now, one of my go-to solutions personally has been to participate in an organization that since the 1930’s has specifically focused on personal communications. If you have been shy to stand and deliver your feelings and observations, I recommend Toastmasters to help you through those thoughts.
At our local Toastmasters Chapter, we call ourselves the “Outliers” and we offer a comfortable way for you to learn impromptu speaking, planned speech delivery, evaluation, and even meeting management. We laugh together, we listen to each other, we clap, and we support our members to bring success within reach of everyone, no matter the level of experience and confidence. Mentoring is available. For more information about attending a Toastmasters meeting as our guest, please contact our VP of Education Tom Iland on 661-313-3323 or his e-mail address tom@thomasiland.com.