Week 1 Round-Up

Jan 8, 2011 by kaizenkoh

It has been 7 days since the start of the New Year. This is day 8. So far, I am happy with my progress. It has been a busy week though not rest depriving as of yet. Sunday shall be recovery day and today shall be reflection day.

Blogging Everyday
Though I did not declare, I’ve made a promise to myself to try to blog every day since the start of new year, stretching the goal of blogging more often, doing the extreme. I’d be honest. I am writing this on Sunday, not the Saturday as the date stated above. In fact, some of the above posts were only completed 1 day after. Therefore, I’ve missed a few days but made it look like I blogged everyday. It doesn’t really matter though. In relative terms to last year, I’ve made tremendous progress. Last year, I barely blogged once every month. This year, my keyboard is dirtier in 1 week than the whole of last year combined.

Although I made it look I blogged everyday, I am proud to announce that I managed to blog almost everyday since the start of the year (technically). That took me much discipline and perseverance because there were days when I did feel like not blogging. However, I told myself that there is information out there or that I’ve experienced in the week where I found interesting and ought to be shared and I should make the effort to craft something meaningful.

Distraction Cut Out!
Another contributing factor to my progress was the decision to cut off MSN temporarily. I know, I did say I will cut it off for 1 month entirely but I needed to use it to communicate and arrange meetings with people so I ended up using it anyway. I disciplined myself to access it only at night. My friends were asking me about the commitment, I told them the above reason, which is true. I think I can go one step in answer to cut down usage. I will only access it a few minutes before I sleep then go off exactly the time when I planned to sleep. Let’s experiment with that next week =).

Cutting off distractions is a gradual process as I’ve described in my previous post : My Commitment to Cut Out Distractions. What are your distractions in 2010 that you risk being affected by in 2011 as well? Consider them and take steps to try to cut them out. It will do you good as it has done for me, even in just 1 week.

Crafting and Delivering My Advanced Speech
Another success I would like to highlight is the speed I was able to craft a speech in a shorter time then I expected. I often read and am told that we need not craft perfect speeches. I feel that we need to have a sense and attitude of excellence though. In Toastmasters, every speaking chance is another precious moment to practise a speech. If we don’t put in the effort to craft or prepare a speech that will have an impact for the audience, you will feel that you’ve let yourself down even more. It has happened before to me. I crafted a speech, did not practise and fell horribly flat during delivery. You can see it in the eyes of the audience right after the speech ends, they aren’t impressed. Whereas, when I prepare a great speech, practise it and deliver it with confidence, it gives the audience something to enjoy and think about the subject/topic spoken about. Ok, that was a small digression…

Even though I crafted my speech on Wednesday which was supposed to be delivered on Thursday, I was able to deliver it with confidence. However, the Advanced Speech Projects absolutely need a higher level of skill in crafting a great speech. I fell short in the “content” aspect of the speech and was evaluated and marked down based on that. That will be my focus for future speeches and I will be strategizing as well as seeking advice on how to improve on content.

Lastly, I would like to share points about being inspired.
In my previous post, I talked about the things I’ve learnt while leading in the army. However,  that particular place really isn’t an inspiring place to be in. I try my best to get inspired by sources outside. From static materials like books, videos, articles and websites to dynamic experiences with people and other organizations like Toastmasters. Getting inspired isn’t really that hard at all.

If you’ve noticed, most of the posts I’ve created touch about motivation and inspiration themes in one way or another. By creating such posts, it reinforces the things I’ve learnt in the materials, people and other experiences. I think that’s the reason I am keen to focus on creating posts on such topics too. So that’s one way of getting inspired, reflecting and creating something (e.g. writing/blogging) about it.

Another way I discovered that’s very important is meeting people who you can learn from and continue to get inspired to take action. We must be willing to go out there, pursue our passions and meet people to learn from. By joining Toastmasters, I’ve networked and managed to meet very motivated people who consistently take action for the organization and other passions of theirs. Just by meeting them, knowing them, listening to them, you will feel like you can make a difference and will be spurred on to do so as well. It is that powerful. So, I do encourage all to join an organization or group whereby there are people you can look to for support and more importantly, inspiration.

That all for now…
These are a few of the learning points for this week. I plan to write more useful and practical information with a personal touch. This is mainly for application sake. After all, what good is knowledge and reflections if they can’t be applied for future use. What do you think? What style of blogging should I adopt? Would like to hear from you too.

I hope this post inspires you to take more action and have a great 2nd week in this wonderful new year.

With Love,
Kelvin “Kaizen” Koh

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