It has been almost 2 months since I posted here. Since the last post about conference planning much has happened. First, I had to step down from planning the conference. Two years ago I tried to equally split my time between getting a second masters degree and doing Toastmasters. It didn't work out well. As a result, I put my formal educational goals on hold to focus on Toastmasters. I got my DTM in that time and it was worth every moment of it. This year I thought I would be able to better balance the two, but a few weeks into the effort I realized it wasn't going to happen. Since I had already given Toastmasters a year of my time, now I wanted to focus on my formal education a bit. I gave up conference planning for a bit more work/school duties. It was been worth every moment of it. Yet, it means that I have not been as focused on Toastmasters as I wanted to be. Not only am I not planning the conference, but I am not able to go due to multiple issues. I haven't been to many of my own club meetings and I have not been able to renew my membership to one of the two clubs I belong too.
If this had happened last year, I would probably be in panic mode trying to make up for lost time. This year I am not as anxious. Part of it has to do with me feeling like District 31 isn't the place where I am going to reach my larger leadership goals. I don't know if my frustrations here are my frustrations with the District or with the organization. Either way, I am willing to take a small step back from Toastmasters until I am ready to refocus my efforts.
What I am saying is that, I don't expect to have much to write about for a while and I am OK with that. I am not shutting the blog down by any means, I am just taking a break. Maybe in the new year I will feel more energized and interested in focusing on Toastmasters again.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
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2 comments:
Hi Sara,
Long time reader, 1st time commenting. I've been in the same situation earlier this year in which I actually considered leaving Toastmasters after getting deeply involved in plenty of activities within my home District since 2001. It was actually triggered by some issues I had with my home District as well as with my primary club, but getting a DTM a couple of years ago also made me wonder if there was anything left for me to do in TM.
While I have pursued other opportunities outside of TM, I decided to remain involved in the organization and the two clubs I currently belong to. However I had to make some radical changes in how I get involved in TM, such as not stepping up to take whatever tasks are needed just because help is needed. I also cut back drastically on attending events outside of my clubs. Instead I focus on smaller things such as mentoring and attending events to support select people, as well as having my own TM blog to share what I experienced over the years to others.
There is nothing wrong with what you're doing in taking a break from TM. I hope that when you get active in Toastmasters again that you get to do that in your own terms and not someone else's.
Will Hsiung, DTM
Hi Sara;
Well said; well written. I read your last several and about getting older, yes, I think we also feel more expectations of ourselves. As Area Gov this year I am centering my term on "Leadership". Not only do we expect more of ourselves, but I also expect more from others and have a waning patience when I don't see it. Of course, I cut others some slack as we can't always - almost never - expect others to come close to our expectations. So we must still raise the bar for ourselves. Listened to your podcasts. Well done also. Leadership is more of what we need, not just in TM but in society in general.
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