Be The Best You Can Be
In his heyday, John D. Rockefeller once said ,"If the ability to communicate with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee, I will pay more for that ability than any other under the sun". As an organization, Toastmasters International help men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking- vital skills that promote self-actualization, enhance leadership skills and foster human understanding.
The power to communicate is one of our greatest endowments. All civilized life grows out of that ability and the uses made of it. |
Murale "Mike" Gopinathan, DTM |
Tonight, I want to share with you two points which I believe
are essential for self-actualization: first, "Strive for
Excellence" and second, "Reach Your True Potential".
What is Excellence? Some think that being excellent is being
perfect and because they cannot achieve a state of perfection,
they refuse to pursue excellence. We are what we are and Excellence
is being the best we can be.
When we think about it, each of us is unique. We are unique in
our experiences, we are unique in our upbringing and we are unique
in our abilities. Some of us are outgoing and some are not. Some
of us are leaders and others are followers. Some of us are thinkers
while others are doers. But what ever category we are in, we
all can make that move towards a life of excellence.
In order to achieve excellence, we must aim high. If we set our
goals too low we achieve only mediocrity. If you think small,
your self-esteem will remain small.
As a young boy, I used to have a pet fish. It was a Japanese
fish called Koi fish. The fascinating thing about the Koi fish
is that if you put it in a small tank, he will grow to about
three to four inches long. If you move him to a large tank, he
will grow to six to seven inches long. But if you move him to
a large pond, he will grow to a foot and a half long. But if
you put him in a huge lake where he can fully stretch, he will
reach sizes up to three feet long. Very fascinating.
I believe that ideas are like the Koi fish. If you put a small
idea in a small thinking mind, you get small achievements. But
if you put the same ideas in a big thinking mind, you get enormous
achievements.
Today, I ask you to think big, because I believe that for us "the sky" is the limit.
Unleash Your True Potential
The second message I want to share with you is to ask you
to unleash your true potential. Many people do not reach their
true potential because they are afraid of barriers.
When I was growing up in India, my neighbor had a little elephant.
We used to call him Sam. When Sam was little, my neighbor used
to chain him to a coconut tree using a metal chain. And Sam would
pull on the chain to break loose and be free. But the chain was
too strong and he could not break it. Eventually, Sam grew up
to be a very strong and majestic elephant. But today Sam would
never attempt to set himself free because in his mind he believes
that this is an impossible task.
Now I ask you, how many of us limit our potential because we
are afraid to break "our chain."
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, a psychologist
and she tells me that compared with what we could be we are only
half awake. She tells me that we are making use of only a small
part of our possible mental and physical ability.
Whenever I think of people not reaching their true potential,
what comes to my mind is a story I heard sometime ago.
You see, a farmers' young son was outside playing one day and
he came home with a large odd-looking egg. The boy showed it
to his farther and wanted to know whether he could keep it. The
farmer did not know what to do, so he took the egg and carefully
placed it under a mother goose that was nesting.
A few days latter the father and the son were leaving the house
when they saw the mother goose parading across the barn yard
followed by six beautiful baby geese. It was a funny sight because
the tiny little birds were trying frantically to keep up with
their mother.
The boy and his father smiled and started to turn around, but
then something caught their eyes. One little goose was trailing
behind the rest. His beak was not flat, it was pointed and twisted.
He could hardly walk, because he had claws instead of delicate
webbed feet. Instead of a lovely white color, he was an ugly
brown color. And to top it off, he made a terrible squawking
sound. He was a freaky bird, ugly and disfigured!
Then - then one day, above the barnyard flew a giant eagle. He
swept lower and lower until this strange, awkward bird on the
ground lifted his head and pointed his crooked beak into the
sky to see what it was.
"What a beautiful bird!" he exclaimed. "What is
it?" he asked. "That's an eagle - the king of birds,"
somebody said. "But don't - don't give it a second thought,
because you can never be like him" someone else added. The
strange bird would have died after living the life of a goose,
but fortunately he did give it a second thought. "Strange",
he said to himself, "I too have these giant wings. I too
have these huge claws on my feet that could be used for something
better than just scratching the dirt".
The misfit creature then stretched his wings and began to hobble
across the yard. He flapped his wings harder and harder until
the wind picked him up and carried him higher and higher. Soon
he began to soar through the clouds. You see, he discovered his
true potential. He was born to be an eagle, but was trying to
live like a goose.
Now, I wonder how many of us in this room and across the world
are eagles, trying to live the life of a goose. I believe we
have potential far beyond the status quo and mediocrity. The
goose-eagle story tells us an awesome truth. It tells us that
the person you see in yourself is the person you will be. So
its up to you. You can commit yourself to the pursuit of excellence
or you can settle for mediocrity. You can reach your true potential
or be content with something far less.
Tonight, I ask you to break your chains, I ask you to give things
a second thought and I ask you to unleash your true potential.
I want to step back and reflect for a moment on our goals and
aspirations as individuals. We all joined Toastmasters for a
single purpose - to achieve communication and leadership excellence.
Our collective success as a group depends on each of us. If we
invest in ourself, if we try to be the best we can be - I know
that we can build a better you, I know that we can build a better
universe.
If the past has taught us anything, it has taught us that we
can be what we want to be. Today, I ask you to strive for excellence,
and I ask you to unleash your true potential so that we all will
be the best we can be. |
