Rise to the sky

Triumph is the habit for Roger Federer. He won 15 Grand Slams.he holds the World No 1 title for more than 237 weeks now. What is the reason behind his success?
Lets look back at his career.
In 1998 at the age of 17, he lost 3 times in a row in an ATP tournament
In 1999, He lost 8 times in first round and 4 times in second round
In 2000 he lost 14 matches and finished at number 28
In 2001 He finished at no 12. But still he lost 6 times in a year
In 2002 he finished at no. 6. He had some losses too.
In 2003 he lost in the finals against felix mantilla
But now, he is No 1.
His failures could in no way stop him. The past does not affect the future unless we decide it to do so. Roger ensured that he can play any strategy that his opponent may plan.
He focuses on what he wants. Triumph. When he starts playing, all he wants goes to the subconscious mind and starts driving him. He plays in the present. He just focuses on how to strike the ball. He neither thinks about the past nor about the future during the game. However, He plans when he is out of his court. He does not let his past affect his future. His positive thinking has always lead him to the front.
I.e. Big thinking calls for planning
Big planning calls for preparation
Big preparation calls for hardwork
Hard work calls for achievement.
Fellow Toastmasters and guests,
Each one of us here want to conquer the world. Each one of us want to be the best speaker and a humble listener, be a leader and also a follower. Paradox in thoughts should not anchor us at a point, instead help us move forward.
Taking on the role of Vice president Education, I intend to highlight a few needs of the club.
Committee plans to work towards DP by dec 09.
We must have 6 CC’s and 10 CLs in next 6 months.
We must have 4 AC’s and 3 ALs in next 5 months.
I believe membership will flow in automatically to a successful club. When the quest to perform is high, everyone would like to have the readymade information available to them from the district training programs. To fulfill their wishes, they ensure to follow the guidelines and naturally induct the new members too.
I have an added challenge placed before me by the executive committee of our club. We want each member to move up by 3 speeches. We want each member to be educated about the club roles and also about their opportunities in Toastmasters.
I sat down and started looking out for show stoppers.
1. I sensed that the burden on mentors was not equally distributed. Some mentors were loaded with mentees while some were not.
2. Absence of prescribed schedule based on which each member can Plan, Prepare and Perform.
3. An online tracking system to track member’s progress.
I started with a clean slate. I quickly tried to gather the data. Thanks to my term as a secretary last term where I had the Minutes of the Meeting consolidated in a single workbook. I down loaded the member list from Toastmasters site and consolidated the data. To my astonishment, I found that the activity was easy as there were only 12 members who has renewed the membership and the rest 28 were new ones. Shock of my life was that only six out of the 12 were regular. The statistics tweaked my brain’s grey cells. “Membership retention should be the main goal” said my conscious. I quickly tried to get a snapshot of member records. But none were available except one. I decided to collect the goals individually. I made calls to the mobile numbers registered in the site. I was correctly directed to 25 calls. 15 calls either lead to a voice mail or was switched off.
I now consolidated the data for this 25 members and started the term. I still have a big challenge ahead. The challenge as to how to get the complete data. Challenge as to how to accelerate the growth. Growth of the individual. Growth of the club.
When I put my points straight, I was offered support. Today, I stand before all of you bringing in the members equally distributed among the mentors who have been certified as competent communicators or advanced communicators. Each mentor assured that their mentees will be given equal attention and support. Mentors also assured to train and increase the number of mentors by educating them on mentoring.
The next step was to get the plan in place. I sent out mail to you all asking for your goals. I received immediate replies from most of them. This provided me the input for scheduling roles and your speeches. There too I had a starting trouble. I circulated the draft for a month. I am happy to have most of the scheduled speeches in line with the plan.
My next plan is to extend this for the term. I am in the process of creating the same. I have some new challenges where I need the schedule to be flexible to accommodate opportunities for new joinees and ensure their growth too. I plan to come with that flexible plan by the end of August 2009. Plan, Prepare and Perform has been addressed through the schedules and mentors. How about tracking?
I want all your views and thoughts for an online tracking system.
With this plan and preparation, I am sure we will raise to the sky and go beyond. After all what is sky. It is just a few miles from here.
Mr. TM