86400 is all yours

Since I'm now virtually off from attending the regular weekly Toastmasters meetings, I feel bad about myself not being an active Toastmaster. Till I get anchored properly in my new job, I thought I'll keep posting a few Presidential speeches I had given during my term as President in my earlier Toastmasters Club.

This is the first speech I gave as a President - the theme: "86400 is all yours".

Dear Toastmasters,

"86400 is all yours" - can you comprehend this? 86400 is just a number. But see this number in terms of your life .. it is the number of seconds in a day of your life ... yes... everyday and every second is yours.

Seeing a day as a day may not mean much .. but seeing it from the level of a second means much. Yesterday, I was going through Robert Pirsig's book 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance'. There was this amazing short stuff where he talks about climbing mountains ....

Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speedup. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion.

And here comes the most pragmatic reasoning ....

Then, when you're no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn't just a a means to end but a unique event in itself. This leaf has jagged edges. This rock looks loose. From this place the snow is less visible, even though closer. These are things you should notice anyway. To live for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountains which sustain life, not the top. Here's where things grow. But of course, without the top, you can't have the sides. Its the top that defines the sides. ....

If you correlate the mountains to your life and each of the steps to each second in your day, dear Toastmasters, you will feel that you need to live each and every second to reach to the top. As Pirsig says, once you reach the top, there is nothing, but it is the feel that you get through each and every step.

So, Dear TMs, there should be an aim to your life - like the peak of the mountains, but similarly to the mountains' sides, our life should have variety, liveliness and enthusiasm - which we need to enjoy and appreciate.

Similarly, coming to a meeting, giving a speech and moving off is not great - I would term it shallow - because you don't live and enjoy the enthusiasm of other Toastmasters. But when in a meeting, you can give importance to the meeting and to each and every other Toastmaster and the guest and make the meeting a success, that is the real spirit as a Toastmaster. Dear Tms, our TM of the day is one such person, who brings in liveliness, brings in importance to meetings and brings out the best of all other Tms in the day. Please join me in welcoming our TM of the day, AM ......

A few thoughts on what a President should do to give a good kickstart to the meeting ...
1. Know the theme of the meeting.
2. Get some information about the Toastmaster of the day, how he/she views the theme.
3. Get some inspirational examples to substantiate the theme.
4. Connect the theme to the Toastmaster of the day, the Toastmasters and the meeting as such.