My Vison and New Hats, Public Speaking and Culture

I met with my fellow Toastmasters last night, and delivered a prepared speech titled My  Vision and New Hats. This was the second speech I had to deliver, following the first one I made on October 5th, to complete the project of my learning Pathways.

The name of the project is "Develop Your Vision", which has been a favorite topic of mine. Preparing and delivering these two speeches allowed me to reflect on the life journey I have made, wearing different hats and achieving many milestones. It also allowed me to visualize my journey still ahead and the roles to play, or the hats I will wear as my speech title suggests.

Then, we had a meeting theme that everyone could easily relate to, for it is a main, if not sole, reason why we're all sitting here as Toastmasters: public speaking. In answering the theme question: "How do you overcome the fear of speaking in front of a group of people?", I wrote down the key words: prepare, rehearse, open energetically, and smile. These were tips I applied when speaking to groups of all sizes, which was part of my daily routine as both a leader and a manager during my career. 

In this connection, I considered myself exceptionally fortunate because I figured out my own way to overcome fear about public speaking by OJT (On-the-Job training) throughout my career.  Needless to say, though, learning and practicing in Toastmasters brings one's public speaking skills to new levels, and I have benefited likewise, though I no longer need public speaking for my livelihood.

It reminds me of the importance of rhetoric, the art of persuasion originating from Athens in the 4th century BCE, and according to Wikipedia: "From Ancient Greece to the late 19th century, rhetoric played a central role in Western education in training orators, lawyers, counsellors, historians, statesmen, and poets." Rhetoric was among the seven liberal arts taught in medieval Europe universities (with the remaining six liberal arts being arithmetic,  geometry,  astronomy, music, grammar, and logic). In my view what we call public speaking today is part of rhetoric (known as oratory before) that first appeared in the ancient Greek era.

The other thing I can relate to is that culture dictates people's attitudes towards public speaking, which has been a prominent art (skill) in the western world since the ancient time, but it has not been the case in the relatively conservative East until recently, thanks to globalization and modern technological advancements. 

To this end, I still remember vividly how a brilliant colleague of mine compared the difference between a Japanese and an American, like this: "If the Japanese understands the issue 100%, he will say just 10% of it in public. Conversely,  if an American knows just 10%, he can talk about it 100% in public." This is surely a biased and exaggerated, if not discriminatory analogy, but having been through both American and Japanese corporate cultures in my career, I saw a huge gap in how people view public speaking in different cultures.

Alright, enough of my reflection and here's the script of my speech last night :

My Vison and New Hats

How many roles do you play in your life now? What are some new roles that you wish to play in the next 10 years?

Good evening everyone!  It’s my honor to share with you something about my personal vision. As suggested by my learning Pathways, I have to deliver two speeches under the project. I already made the first speech at another club,  Sandwich, so I’m making my 2nd speech now, which is about the details of my vision plan. And, because my vision plan can be outlined by the hats I'll be wearing, which is the same as the new roles I’ll be playing as I asked you in my opening questions, I made my speech title tonight as My Vision and New Hats.

Before going into detail, let me give you a brief summary of my first speech: I started using the tool of personal vision when I was young, through which I have achieved many goals in the most important dimensions of my life: family, career and personal interest. Now in my retirement and the circumstances I’m in are totally different, I have renewed my personal vision, with a vision statement like this: To live my life rooted in Taiwan and connected with the world. To pursue my lifelong learning and personal interest in a 3-self manner: Self-actualization, Self-appreciation and Self-entertainment.

Under this vision statement, I’ll wear a few new hats, or play some new roles, going forward.

First and foremost, a Son. This is the photo I took this morning with my mom. She’s now 92 years old. She had a stroke 20 years ago and has remained on the wheelchair ever since. She lives in a nursing home and I visit her every week. Though a Son (or a daughter) Is a hat that everyone wears, I cherish it more than anything else now and appreciate every minute we spend together.

My second hat is a literature lover. This is a new role I embraced after I retired. Now I read English literature everyday, and the milestone I’m most proud of is that now I know how to study Shakespeare’s plays by myself, and so far I have studied 6 Shakespeare’s plays.

My third hat is a blogger. This is the newest role that I embraced - only 3 months ago - thanks to the learning Pathways of Toastmasters. Now I keep my blog in English, with Chinese translation posted on Facebook. There are already 27 posts on my blog and I’ll make my 28th post after our meeting tonight.

My fourth hat is a backpaker. This is also a new role I embraced after I retired. In this role, I make backpacking travel every month, and already visited 358 townships across Taiwan in a period of 20 months. 

My fifth hat is a Ubiker. Now I ride Ubike everyday. I ride it as a means of not just transport, but also exercise. Besides, I ride Ubike to reduce carbon footprint. And you know what? After this meeting, I’ll go home by Ubike, as usual.

My last, but definitely not the least hat is, well, a Toastmaster! I joined it after I retired, too, because I wanted to continue practicing my English, and to get to know people with a growth mindset like you. Now I meet with, and learn from, our fellow Toastmasters every week under a dual membership with two clubs.

To conclude, under my personal vision statement, now I wear mainly 6 hats, or play 6 roles: a son, a literature lover, a blogger, a backpacker, a Ubiker and a Toastmaster. And, I look forward to wearing some more new hats as my learning journey unfolds.

That sums up my speech tonight. Thank you for your attention. TME!