Toastmasters International Series, #2: Why Compete?

There are a lot of reasons why you might not want to compete in Toastmasters. To be honest, after a few outings where I lost pretty handily, I was unmotivated to every do it again. That doesn’t mean I won’t; I’ll just have to think about it.

So, considering my reluctance, why am I writing this blog post about competing?

First, you can use the speech as one of your pathway assignments.

• You’ll have a different audience than your club. Consequently, you’ll have a larger and more diverse audience than your club.

• You’ll spend more time in practicing and perfecting your speech, and that will pay off in your next presentations.

• You will meet new people and extend your network

• You will hear quality speeches from other clubs.

• Last, if you move forward, you will have a line item for your resume or CV.

Granted, competing is somewhat time consuming and not a little nerve wracking. And you have no promise of winning and moving on in the competition. You might, like me, hit the blank wall pretty quickly. But I do know I benefited, if only from the practice and having to memorize the speech, good training for my brain that’s on the verge of senior citizenhood.