In late 2010, I joined Toastmasters, an organization for improving speaking and leadership skills. I really enjoyed it, and within a year I had become an officer in the club (I was the club Secretary), and made swift progress toward my goals. In fact, within a few years, I had progressed further than anyone else in the club.
Here’s how it works (or, worked, to be more precise, but I’ll get to that): A new member gets two workbooks, one for communication, and one for leadership. Completing the projects in either of those books gains a member an award and the status of Competent Communicator or Competent Leader, respectively. Then there are more workbooks – various ones a member can choose to suit their preferences – with other projects that lead to a bronze, silver, and gold level. Once they’ve completed all that, they’re a Distinguished Toastmaster, the highest level you can attain.
Soon after joining, I made it my goal to become a Distinguished Toastmaster. One day. There was no rush, and since I was busy with school, work, and parenting, I knew it would take time.
But then Toastmasters International changed the rules.
Last year, they rolled out a new program for giving speeches and other projects. A program called Pathways – it’s more online (instead of in book form), it’s more customizable, too. Both of those things are fine with me, but what wasn’t fine was that they said the old path was going away very soon, with no allowances made for what members had already accomplished in the former program.
It’s sort of like this:
Imagine you’re in high school. You’re progressing through the school system, taking required classes and electives as is fitting with the ultimate goal of graduating. But then, one day, when you’re in 11th grade, your school rolls out a new program. Instead of 3 years of math, you now need 4. And instead of one foreign language class, there are now 3 different foreign language classes, and you can take any one of them. And there are now different requirements for reading, technology, phy ed, art, music, and, well, everything.
Okay, so at first you figure this sounds fine. Surely this only applies to new students, right? Aren’t you grandfathered in?
Nope.
Okay, but then you figure it’s still all right, because you can just take that 4th year of math next year – when you’re a senior. And, anyway, everything you’ve done from Kindergarten to 11th grade still counts for something, right?
Nope again.
Oh, the school tells you it’s all right, – because you still gained valuable skills at school this whole decade, and you can always say you graduated from the local elementary and middle schools…but they no longer count toward the main goal, that big goal of graduating from high school. To ease the pain, they will give you one month to finish in the previous program. If you can. I know you were planning to take all of next year to complete 12th grade, but hey, you can do it in a month, right?
So that’s where I was at a year ago. In May 2018, I discovered my Advanced Communicator Silver and my Advanced Leadership Silver would soon count for nothing toward the goal of becoming a Distinguished Toastmaster. If I wanted to become a Distinguished Toastmaster, I could either start all over at the beginning (akin to an 11th-grader re-entering kindergarten), or squeeze in my final requirements in the next 2 years (akin to a 12th-grader finishing their senior year in a month).
Pretty bad. But, thankfully, I finished 12th grade in 3 months.
The big thing was that I needed to complete the task of serving as a district-level officer for a year, so I immediately sought out how to do that, even though I wasn’t ready, didn’t feel comfortable doing it, and wasn’t sure I had time to do it adequately.
Funny thing, when I showed up at the first meeting of district officers, I met several others who were just doing it now to get it over with so they could meet that goal. One of the people at the meeting said we should be doing it for the experience and not for the ultimate goal, but that’s bullshit: Toastmasters is the one who sets out that goal, and they were now the one forcing people to do it post haste. It reminded me of how I had a goal of being a Pioneer back when I was a Jehovah’s Witness. And the goal of being a Pioneer is literally spending a certain amount of time preaching. So then people in the religion – including some of my relatives – got annoyed that I was so concerned with garnering the needed hours. But that was the goal the organization set…I merely agreed to do it.
Anyway…
In May 2018, I listed everything that stood between me and being a Distinguished Toastmaster. Here’s the list, which has been posted in my cube at work ever since:
As you can see, there are 11 items on my list. Some were relatively easy, such as just giving a particular speech. Others were projects that take several months and involve various tasks. I included the deadline, which at the time was 25 months away and is now just under 12 months away. I’ve completed 7 of the goals, and am half done with two of the remaining goals.
So, I’m getting there. I’ll post an update in about 10 months.