The beauty of many things outside can be seen through our eyes, while the beauty of a soul can only be felt through our heart.
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The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability
Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman
Portfolio/Penguin Group (2010)
As human beings, it is natural for us to easily fall into the blame game and possess a mindset that we are victims of our situations or circumstances. In The Oz Principle, the authors Connors, Smith, and Hickman use the metaphor of the characters in the Wizard of Oz story to illustrate how people use their sense of victimization to justify inaction, excuse ineffectiveness or poor performance, and slow down their own progress.
The authors also point out that everyone within an
→ Read MoreHi everyone!
Being a member of Toastmasters International, especially a member of Otemachi Toastmasters Club is something that I always feel proud of. I remember when I visited Otemachi Club for the first time, I was warmly welcomed by our current Vice President Membership (VPM) TM Hinako and by all amazing members and I immediately felt the chemistry that this is the right club for me and here I am with the club for almost one year now.
Before I decided to run as a
→ Read MoreIf you were to ask me what my most fulfilling and memorable life experiences were, I could tell you they were volunteering experiences.
During my stay in Japan, I have been participating in various volunteering activities, one of which organized by an NPO called Ganbaro Miyagi which provides mental care support for children under one of their disaster recovery projects called International English Camp. As a volunteer, I was able to help children learn and have fun through different activities that allowed them to develop their sense of proactiveness, independence, and awareness to the outside world.
I also used to
→ Read MoreHi everyone!
Imagine for a moment that somebody asks you for your opinion on a certain topic, whether in a professional or social setting. But what if you can’t speak up your mind even when you have the best ideas to share?
A lot of times, I had been in the situation like this and I often felt frustrated when I could not articulate my thoughts and ideas concisely and get my message across. This is quite challenging especially for an introvert like me who always find myself struggling to put my thoughts into words and most of the time I
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Dear friends,
Today is the last day of 2020 and I am delighted to reach out to all of you to reconnect and also to conclude this year together. No matter where you are living right now, my thoughts are with you during this unprecedented time and I hope you are all settling into the “new normal”, staying safe and well.
This year has been a trying year for many of us as our lives have been affected in many ways by the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic. However, I believe some of you are still able
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If you are looking for a good book to read to accelerate your personal and professional growth from inspiring to taking action, I would recommend one of my favorite books I read this year: “Die Empty — Unleash Your Best Work Every Day“ by Todd Henry. The title is a bit misleading and sounds mortality but there are plenty of useful takeaways and inspiration from this book that I thought worth sharing.
In fact, no one likes the word die, but remembering that we are going to die someday is the best way to remind us that our time on
→ Read MoreCame across a Youtube video of an interesting talk by Jonh Bowe, the author of “I Have Something to Say: Mastering the Art of Public Speaking in an Age of Disconnection“. In a part of his speech, he raised a quote by Ralph C. Smedley (the founder of Toastmasters International) which resonated with my current communication challenge and the reason I join Toastmasters.
→ Read MoreWhen a man is unable to express his thoughts to his fellows, to express himself vigorously and comfortably in his business and social life, he lives a diminished existence. The greater part of his
In today’s Toastmasters meeting I took a role as a Timer for the first time. Since it was a Zoom meeting, I used the virtual background that represented stoplight (available for download at: https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/zoom-stop-light-timer-backgrounds). For the stopwatch, I used the Toastmasters mobile app (https://www.toastmasters.org/Membership/Club-Meeting-Roles/Mobile-App) which allowed me to easily count the time for each speech session. In addition, I had a printed timer log sheet to record the time for each speaker.
The following was my script:
Good evening everyone, in life we use time extensively to measure our
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