Lost & Found

One of my major setbacks that I want to put forward today was getting onto the stage and facing everyone. If it’s a group performance, I could easily hide behind anyone, just peep out, perform, and forget it. But getting onto the stage all alone is something terrifying.

During my 7th grade, I was forced onto the stage for a short talk. In spite of the humid weather, I was completely frozen. From then on, climbing up the stage and facing the audience had always felt like thrashing in the water to save my life—without knowing how to swim.

At the outset, every speaker from the past until today has experienced the same struggle of thrashing in the water wildly. But how did they master the art, evolve, and emerge from it? Like an oxygen tank, like a floating device— There comes a few people FOR OUR RESCUE. They guide, empower, encourage, and motivate us to evolve. They are our Mentors.

Now, there can be unsolicited and solicited mentors. Sounds technical?

Good afternoon, fellow Toast masters and Guests.

Let me keep it simple. All these days, before getting into L2P3 – Introduction to Mentoring, I had the impression that mentors are superheroes who have been victorious against all odds, and I was waiting to find one such mentor. But after venturing into life on my own terms, there came a stunning realisation of truth. Life taught me a profound truth:

As human being, everyone is prone to commit mistakes.

Mentors are the ones with great experience and knowledge, willing to spend their valuable time guiding, supporting, and helping us achieve our goals.

I’m grateful to have discovered mentors I failed to recognise before.

The very first mentor that come to our mind is our Parents and Teachers. Often, they tend to play the role of a coach—always at our back, giving us plenty of dos and a long series of don’ts, constantly pestering us with advice. Those invaluable insights are often perceived as criticism, right?

They are unsolicited mentors sent by God.

Later in life, we voluntarily attend insightful sessions, listen to thoughtful talks, and get motivated by third persons—they become our solicited mentors. One such person was Mr. Sam, a guest speaker at a personality development camp. His words were…

“Get onto the stage

no matter how freezing cold you feel,

no matter how your lips tremble,

no matter how your legs shake in fear.

Of course, people make fun of your unintentional gestures on stage. But remember—these feelings fade away in just a week’s time. It’s like catching a common cold—only after seven days does it leave you. But after seven days, you gain more immunity. These trials and tribulations are indispensable, even for a cocoon to grow into a butterfly. So why don’t you take it up happily?

Be ready, be happy to get onto the stage…”

These words immediately drove me to the stage, and I delivered an impromptu vote of thanks to him.

That’s how my journey to the stage, to facing an audience, to public speaking unfolded.

But still, my silence to spotlight moments were too short. My gap analysis proved that being confined to a seat, staying within my comfort zone, would never yield me any interesting topics to talk about.

There was another Senior cum Mentor, by the name Sivasankari, at my office, who brilliantly poked me out of my comfort zone. With her companionship, I mustered the courage to rise to different occasions and take part. This acted as the next propelling force, helping me reach longer spotlight minutes.

Only after involving myself in other activities did my thinking and creativity unleash. I lost my hesitation, limitation, and fixation—and found my vision for continuous growth.

Now, I am able to get on stage and have some stuff in mind to talk about, but there is still a feeling of a huge barrier or wall between me and my audience.

Is my voice being heard?

Am I really engaging the audience?

These questions—the quest to grow—guided me to Toastmasters.

My club, V-Talk, assigned me an energetic and dedicated mentor—Toastmaster Sorabh Kalra, based in Pune – Kind, empathetic.

He prefers video calls. Months back, my confidence level was deep inside a dark hole. Meeting consistently with video on created a tangible difference in my eye contact and confidence.

His experience and approach to problems gave me the wisdom that it takes consistent practice and persistence to become a pioneer.

Without any judgements, he converses openly to find multiple solutions to the queries I bring to the table. He insists that I deliver speeches every alternate week. Though sometimes I miss them, his push keeps me motivated to bring myself back on track.

Another person—Toastmaster Gerin Jacob, our Area Director—though not an official mentor, encourages everyone in our club to take roles and constantly reminds us to explore other clubs.

A month ago, he asked me, “Will you be able to accomplish your Level 2 by October?”

I promised. But for several reasons, my plan kept postponed from week to week. When I was finally ready to block the last date of October, Gerin had already blocked it for a panel discussion! This forced me to hunt for speech slots to keep up my promise— and I am so glad that with your club, this has been possible. (I delivered this at Caribbean Toast master Club)

Thank you so much for that.

For me, the mentor-protégé partnership is like vision and action.

A vision without an action is just a daydream. An action without a vision is just a time pass.

But vision and action together can create a big difference.

As Toastmasters, every one of us here has a vision. Mentors empower us to find the right action, execute it, and discover the difference.

The difference I have made so far is:

• I lost my limitations and found my way to boundless opportunities.

• I lost my fear and found the right gear to be on stage.

• I lost my stage fright and found my stage might through a mentor-protégé partnership.

How about you? What have you lost, and what have you found?