Source: Paperblog
…and another reason to be thankful.
How fitting that prompt #23 (love that number!) for personal branding at TheBloggingSchool during #NaBloPoMo is Write about your latest accomplishment. In this birthday recap/annual review, I will mention quite a few of those! I had so many proud, fun moments in the year of 35.
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I’ve mentioned my life-long practice of journaling many times and created one of my own. I came across life coach Rosetta’s post (on The Happy Black Woman blog) about how she does her monthly reviews. I decided that before the first week of September was over, I would reflect on my life in August and write a post about it.
How would I describe my life in August 2012 in one word? Stressful. (I wrote a full entry in my journal that mentions a lot more stressful things than I’m willing to write in this post, but trust me, I’m happy to see September.)
I moved into a new home and took a mini-vacation.
Technically the moving part was in July, but as of August 1, I had been in the house for 3 days so I’m counting it here. As with any move, it takes time to get settled, get repairs and utilities in working order, and establish routines from the new location. I spent a weekend Savannah, GA perusing the tourist area around historic River St. and visited Tybee Island, Paula Deen’s restaurant Lady & Sons, and the highlight was a last-minute idea to her brother’s restaurant, Uncle Bubba’s. I will be back!
I performed in a local improv comedy show for the first time. Why improv?
Professional speakers Steve Berkun (author of Confessions of a Public Speaker) and Darren LaCroix have touted using improvisational techniques as a way to incorporate spontaneity and flexibility while doing public speaking. As a youth speaker, I have to not only educate and give information in a somewhat entertaining manner, but I don’t think of myself as being terribly humorous. The improv class proved to be a fun way to loosen up, trust myself onstage, and gain more self-confidence in extemporaneous speaking situations.
Since my last goal call 2 months ago, I’ve accomplished a lot.
I have submitted my book to a publisher and it was accepted! The editors at Brown Books Small Press were pleased with my manuscript and followed up with a publishing proposal, which I accepted. I have been requesting endorsements from friends, colleagues, and a few celebrities in the meantime. For those of you who don’t know, my book is a self-esteem/memoir book to empower teen girls to celebrate their uniqueness and use the good sense God gave them. It touches on aspects of every day life for them. Continue reading
Yesterday, Spelman College and Written Magazine presented “A Conversation with Tyrese” at the Sister’s Chapel at Spelman. Written’s publisher Michelle Gipson conducted the 80-min interview with singer/actor Tyrese Gibson about his new book, How to Get Out of Your Own Way (Grand Central Publishing, 2011), a memoir/self-help book. Journalist and CNN commentator Jack Johnson joined them onstage as well. Gipson encouraged audience members (Spelman students, grown women, and a few men!) to submit questions on notecards or tweet with the hashtag #WritMagAskTyrese.
Note: This post is written almost like a full-featured magazine article, except that I’ve also included my own thoughts and explanations to provide context. So it’s long, even though I left some things out. . . but I think you’ll enjoy it regardless.
It’s no surprise that when the tall, dark, and dapper 32-year-old Tyrese appeared onstage, the girls went crazy with screams and frantic camera-phone picture-taking. It took awhile before he could speak–partly because of the love from the crowd, and partly because he was nervous. But after his initial “Hello,” the girls (and Tyrese) were able to collect themselves, and I was able to take more than three pages of notes to capture teachings from “The Temple of Tyrese,” as Jet magazine called it in their April 4, 2011 issue.
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As I mentioned recently, progress is the key to the goal, and as you’ll see in this post, I’m a goal-getter.
I’ve already achieved one of the goals I mentioned this year, which is to win a Toastmasters contest. I won the International Speech contest this week at one of my clubs (I’m currently an active member of three clubs). In order to win the title of Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking, you have to win 5 levels of competition:
I’m really proud of this accomplishment because it’s a first for me, and a lot of hard work went into it since I started preparing for the contest 3 months ago. I applied several tips from a former World Champion of Public Speaking, studied pointers for this contest (including recommended speech topics), committed my speech to memory for the first time EVER (I didn’t memorize it word-for-word after I wrote it), and most importantly, I visualized winning. I pictured my “stage time” in my mind and saw myself giving the speech onstage. I saw people’s reactions and felt myself connecting with them. I practiced at home multiple times with and without notes, and I told myself I was going to win.
I will compete in another club contest next week and then advance to the next level competition, the “Area” contest. (I am what Toastmasters considers a “dual member” and am allowed to compete in multiple club contests, but can only compete in one Area contest.)
That’s my biggest news for this week. In other news, I have been doing well with keeping a daily quiet time with God. Normally in the morning I wake up with just enough time to check email and dash off somewhere, but I have rearranged my priorities this month to keep first things first. I believe that staying committed to this alone time with Him will be the key to my success.
Also, I’m still doing well with Lexi’s 6-month Weight Loss Challenge on my goal to losing 25 pounds, and I purchased a set of dance classes at a discount but I have yet to go :S I will do a more in-depth post on all that next week.
In the meantime, there are some tasks I’ve pushed to the backburner. Things I still need to do are:
Are you making headway in some areas and slipping back in some, like me? Let me know how your goal-getting is going.
In work, love, and life I aim for progress, not perfection. And progress is a process.
I’m taking baby steps to work on some of the things I mentioned in my new years post back in November 2010.
The three things that have my priority right now are:
I’ll write more about these goals as I progress. I’ll also recount my Lasik enhancement experience that is happening this morning (my left eye has been blurry since having done Lasik the first time 4 months ago). Although I don’t want to endure this procedure again, at least I’m not scared.
As a continuation of my 2011 theme, “All I Do is Win,” I’ve come up with my own affirmations/declarations. May they inspire you to make your own list, and be a big winner this year, too!
All I Do is Win a publishing contract.
All I Do is Win the heart of my Boaz.
All I Do is Win the “battle of the bulge.”
All I Do is Win a bigger and bigger savings account.
All I Do is Win Toastmasters contests.
All I Do is Win clients and speaking engagements.
All I Do is Win favor over haters.
All I Do is Win friends and influence people.
All I Do is Win satisfaction and happiness.
All I Do is Win WHATEVER I put my mind and hand to do.
Aim for progress, and stay winning!
*It’s not grammatically correct, but I like it.
If you read yesterday’s post, then you know today is, but I’m going to treat this day like New Year’s Day.
I’ve got a bunch of things I’m thankful for since my last birthday, and a bunch of things I want to accomplish before my next one. I started writing the following lists two months ago and managed to save my notes. These lists are in no particular order…
I plan to reassess these goals of mine every month, and you’ll like see posts about my progress on them. I’m really excited about what the future holds– how about you?
Before attending Seize the Day, I had never heard of Tom Hopkins, who has a real estate record of selling 365 homes in one year, and I barely knew who Bill O’Reilly was (political pundit and host of Fox News’ show The O’Reilly Factor) since I don’t watch any real political/”newsy” shows. However, they both dropped a few interesting gems in their short time onstage. What follows are some of my notes. (If you’re not in sales, Hopkins’ speech will still help you understand what is happening when you are approached in a sales scenario.)
Discover Your Power Voice - Courtesy of LesBrown.com
The first speaker for the Seize the Day event last week was motivational speaker and author Les Brown. This post will summarize some of the points he made in his presentation, mostly in his words, but categorized by topic. (Any comments or clarifications I have are shown in parentheses.)
Yesterday I attended a wonderful event called “Seize the Day,” in which 11 speakers discussed business, motivation and personal empowermentover 8 hours. The presenters in order of appearance were Les Brown, Tom Hopkins, Sarah Palin, Bill O’Reilly, Phil Town, Ben Stein, Laura Bush, Than Merrill, John Smoltz, John Maxwell, and Terry Bradshaw. This post is not a full recap, but I will mention some highlights.
As a Toastmaster and aspiring professional speaker, I arrived eagerly anticipating the speeches from Les Brown and John Maxwell. However, I took notes on all* the presenters–not just what they said, but what they did. Some of these nuances are things I would have changed, and some are things I’d like to emulate in my own future presentations. Therefore, in this post, I’ll give you a list of quotables and speaker evaluations.
