Overloaded Donkey Cart OR My Life as a Donkey

The last couple of months have been “interesting.” There is an old Chinese curse that says “May you live in interesting times.” 2010 has definitely been that for me! In the last couple of months my post-concussion syndrome headaches have reasserted themselves. They haven’t been as bad as they were initially, but they’ve still been very hard to deal with. I’m on a different headache preventative Rx, but they still come and go. They just make dealing with everyday life difficult. So I decided to make a few changes in my life in order to try to relieve stress and, hopefully, prevent headaches.

1. I decided to take a break from school. I’m not quitting. I’m not even stopping working on my dissertation. I’m just taking a few months off from classes. I’m thinking that I will start back up again after the New Year. I’ve just been so tired with everything and everyone but school has made the sacrifices for me. Work has been wonderful. My family and friends have been supportive. Mark has been phenomenal! I just need to take some time to relax a bit.
2. I’ve decided to stop watching so much TV. I have already cut out the commercials by recording everything I watch on DVR first, but so much of TV is just pure drivel lately. Even the “educational” channels like Discovery, TLC, National Geographic, and Biography have turned to mush with sensational, shallow, and hollow TV shows. It’s really quite sad… Not even the SciFi (now Syfy) Channel has embraced the lowest form of SciFi for movies and gone away from its original mission and started showing “professional” wrestling and Ghost Hunters.
3. To replace all of my TV watching I’ve decided to read more. I suddenly find myself in various stages of several types of books, depending on my mood. I just finished The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (more on that later…). I’m also reading Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Ethics: The Heart of Leadership, Socialnomics (as an Audible.com book), and Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason (another Audible.com book). All are interesting and the topics vary pretty widely.
4. I’ve also decided to take on a mini-project called Photo365. The idea is to take one photo each day for a year and post it on the web to share. Yes, this is another social media thing. I’m going to start on September 1st and go through August 31st, 2011. Once I start uploading photos, I’ll post them on http://365project.org/ and share them here, on Twitter, and on Facebook. It will be interesting to see what comes out of it.
5. I also plan to blog more often. I’m considering starting some series on life, photography, interesting questions to ponder, the aforementioned reviews of what I’m reading, and probably some op-ed pieces too.
6. I’ve taken a break from Toastmasters. I was in two clubs and was also being encouraged to participate in leadership roles. While I enjoy the Toastmasters program and have learned a LOT about public speaking, I find that a) I want to dive in and fully participate right before b) I collapse in an exhausted heap from even thinking about diving in and participating fully. I will return to it, but I just found myself having to say “No” and feeling lousy because I really wanted to say “Yes” to everything I was asked to help with.
7. Finally, I’m going to get into an exercise regimen. I joined Curves and really enjoy the program, but all of the headaches I’ve been having, coupled with all of the pressure I’ve been under lately, have made getting there to DO the exercise quite difficult. Starting Monday, I’m getting back on that horse and will go AT LEAST 3 days each week.

Have you ever had to do anything like what I’ve done here? How did you handle it? Any advise? Please comment. I’d love to hear from you.

I lost a family friend this week. He was 73 and it sounds like his body clock just wound down and stopped ticking. That’s not a bad way to go for someone who gave as much to his community and touched so many lives as “Mr. Hutch” did. His time ended and he…just…stopped. I went to his funeral and was not surprised to see how many people came to pay respects and support his family. He was a humble and influential man in his community and touched my life in ways I’ll never forget.

I also learned that the son of a friend of mine from Toastmasters died after a long and troubled history with drug addiction. His mother is a friend and really tried to help him overcome his addictions. She is mourning and I mourn her loss. I think her life will improve as she moves further from the loss, but the hole he leaves will remain.

I also learned about the death of a former coworker. I went to his funeral and I grieve for his family. Especially for a very young daughter who will have to grow up without her daddy.

It’s been hard this week to focus on my dissertation project with all of this going on. However, it does keep me moving forward and thinking positively. I had a professor explain the academic process to me once in the following way:

1. AA/AS = a time for students to figure out their homework:party time ratio
2. BA/BS = a time for students to figure out where the library is on campus
3. MA/MS = a time for students to learn to use the library and all of its resources
4. Ph.D. = a time for students to contribute to the library

I’m excited to be at the stage in my academic career where I will be contributing to the library soon!

Image Credit: Retrieved on February 21, 2010 from Jonesville, Virginia – Horse Hollow

A little later in the day I read a blog post by one of my favorite Twitter buddies, @CouchSurfingOri, who listed out his goals (- NOT resolutions) for the year and what he was going to do to achieve those goals. Between the quote this morning and Ori’s blog post, I was inspired to set down my 2010 goals here in my blog and start working to achieve them. So, here goes… (by the way, these are in no particular order)

Toastmasters:

• I plan to earn my Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB). Earning the ACB entails giving a total of ten speeches from two Advanced Communicator Manuals (five from each manual). I have ordered and received two manuals already. The first is the Public Relations manual and the second is Communicating On Television. I chose the Public Relations manual because I am the Vice President of Public Relations for both of my clubs and because being able to get the message out about anything is of key importance to my plans for the future. I chose Communicating on Television because I would like to turn my podcast into a video podcast in 2011 (if not before) and don’t want to look like a fool when I do so.
• I plan to earn my Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB). To earn this award I will need to conduct two programs from the Successful Club Series or the Leadership Excellence Series. I ordered two books from the Successful Club Series: Finding New Members for Your Club and The Toastmasters Educational Program. I decided on these two because both of my clubs are having membership issues. I thought these might be the best two for helping to recruit more members.

School

• Complete my dissertation proposal. I have two classes scheduled with my dissertation mentor to do just this. I plan to submit my proposal in the Fall and start working on the project in January once the proposal has been approved. My mentor assures me that this is a reasonable timeline that  will not cause me undue stress. I told my mentor that I wanted to get through the dissertation process with my health, my sanity, and my marriage intact. My husband says he agrees and approves of the priority listing.

Work

• Teach 12 Video Webinars this year. I enjoy doing webinars for my coworkers on new or better ways to use Microsoft SharePoint 2007 to create and maintain our corporate intranet. To achieve this goal I will:
  • Schedule dedicated time to work on and prepare these webinars
  • Conduct a survey of my customers to find out what topics they most want to have covered
  • Advertise these webinars in advance of each one so that we get good attendance at each one.
• Start an educational blog. I plan to post weekly articles that will answer questions and give tips and tricks to help our site administrators maintain their sites in an efficient and effective manner. To achieve this goal I will:
  • Schedule time to research & write articles each week
  • Survey my site administrators to find out what questions they have so that I can write articles that address these issues
  • Advertise each posting with our site administrators so that they are aware of this new resource

Life

• Meeting health-related challenges. I have had some recent medical challenges that need to be met and overcome. This includes issues with my blood sugar levels dropping dangerously low due largely to a poor diet following gastric bypass surgery. To meet this goal I will:
  • Consult with an endocrinologist to try to regulate my insulin secretions
  • Consult with a nutritionist to start eating healthier food and developing better eating habits
  • Schedule time to exercise regularly
• Spending quality time with my husband and dogs. I need to make sure that I am spending quality time on my relationships and the most important relationships I have right now are with my husband and dogs. They all rely on me for love and nurturing and I need to make sure they are taken care of. To achieve this goal I will:
  • Schedule a date night with my husband so we can have some quality time alone together doing fun, relaxing, or adventurous activities
  • Spend time playing with my dogs every day and when possible, take them with me when I exercise.
• Turn StudentTech into a weekly audio podcast. Last year I did three episodes of this podcast but did not lay out a schedule of time or topics for further episodes. To achieve this goal I will:
  • Set up a list of topics to cover each week using Google Wave
  • Schedule time to write and record a podcast each week
  • Try to find people who want to be guests on podcasts in order to change things up a bit

That’s all that comes to mind right now. Do you have any suggestions for other goals I could add to the list? How about ideas for methods to achieve the goals I listed above? Please comment or connect with me on Twitter.

Image Credits:

The Goals poster was found on Drop and Give Me 20 … Pages! using Google Images.

The Chapter One image was found on A Plethora of Positive Energy using Google Images.

The Healthy Food photo was found on Mom-Going-Organic-Sensibly.com using Google Images.

Projects 2-9 in the Competent Communication Manual build on each other starting with how to build a speech and moving on to using gestures and props or conducting research. While Toastmasters does not require that members go through the manual’s projects in order, I do recommend it as they each build on the previous exercises.

Each of Projects 2-10 has a 5-7 minute time limit. Adhering to time limits is important because nobody is ever given an unlimited amount of time to give a speech. Too short and you may not be giving enough information. Too long and you are either giving too much information or boring your audience to death. Sticking to a standard time-frame allows a new speaker to learn how long that time frame feels so they can adjust their speech on the fly if necessary.

Finally, as with any new skill, it’s important to practice, practice, practice. Beyond practicing your speech before a mirror, it’s important to practice giving speeches before an audience. The more you give presentations, the better a presenter you will become.

Next in this series – How to deal with feedback…

Image Credit: This image was retrieved on December 20, 2009 from Freedom to Think using Google Images.

The Communication Education Program works so well because it starts with the basics and builds on each speech after that. The first speech is called the “Ice Breaker” and the idea is to introduce the new member to the club. What does a speaker know more about than themselves after all?

I’ve heard experienced Toastmasters say that if a new member gets up in front of the group and tells them a bit about themselves, then the Ice Breaker is a complete success! I agree. The first barrier to overcome is the fear of the unknown. The unknowns in an Ice Breaker situation are how the members will react to the new member, and how the new member will make it through the 4-6 minutes. Once they see that green card signal that they have made the minimum 4 minutes they can stop talking and sit down and be considered a success. This does not apply to all speeches given in Toastmasters however…

Every Toastmaster gets an applause for giving a speech!

Each successive speech adds to the member’s experience level, arsenal of speaking techniques, and most importantly, adds to the member’s confidence level and expertise as a speaker. I’ve given 10 speeches at Toastmasters meetings and have seen a vast improvement in my presentation skills. Do I consider myself an expert yet? NO! I still have a long way to go, but Toastmasters provides a good course of action that can help me get to where I want to go.

Here’s an overview of both Toastmasters Education Programs >>>

Tomorrow – Building on the Ice Breaker…

Image Credits:

1. Cartoon found on The Top 10 Ways to Feel Confident About Public Speaking using Google Images.

2. Photo found on Salt Lake Toastmasters using Google Images.