The fact is scheduled speakers back out each week. We've often gone from 4 assigned speakers down to 1. Then some people also add themselves in because that week works for them. So then we've also gone from 4 speakers down to 1 and then back up to 3. So technically I can pop in as a speaker whenever I choose to.
Since I completed the basic 10 speech CC manual a while ago, I've been working on my Advanced Manuals. I finished one (5 speeches). Now I'm unto the next. The advanced manual I'm working out of now is called "Storytelling" and it focuses on 5 different kinds of stories/tales you can tell. It's hard. So I'm just going to skip Project 1 (A Folk Tale) for now and go for Project 2 (Telling a Personal Story). I'm just going to write out the basic outline/story below:
"Let me check my schedule". I never thought in reality that'd I'd actually have to use those words in a sentence. "Let me check my schedule". I don't have schedules! I'm an artist I just go with the flow. Who needs watches and calendars and dates? That stuff's complicated and I'm free whenever.
How did this happen? I decided to create a pie chart with some free time I somehow managed to find and discovered how slowly. but surely, my life has come to require the fine art of time mapping.
Pie Chart#1 of My Life shows the percentage of focus and time alotted to the main activities of last year:
Toastmasters was at 20% (I was just starting out as V.P. of Education)
My full-time job as a Marketing Assistant was at 25%
My "Me Time" which was dedicated to things like Drawing, Watching TV, and Writing was at an all-time high of 35%.
Spending time with Friends was... I didn't have many friends. Does Facebook count? 5% total...
And spending time with family was at 10%. They don't live far and I don't have pets so I mooch of theirs.
Then my friend Jos came along and as I've said before if you ever want to find something to do, go talk to Jos and the next thing you know you'll be mid-way through a High Performance Leadership Project driving blindfolded while juggling knives.
Behold my current Pie Chart of Activities:
Toastmasters is now at 19% -You only went down 1 point. V.P. of Education was a big role to fill, but being President is still keeping me pretty busy.
My full-time job is now at 14%. Don't let the numbers fool you, I added 2 new categories so the ratio percentage has actually increased. We're releasing a new software so I have plenty of things to do at work these days.
Nooooo...Where has all my "Me Time" gone? It's been cut in half.
Now it's tied at 7% with... Friends? When did I get those? I now spend half of my time alone at home enjoying solitude and TV shows and the other time running around with people.
Family has gone down 5%. They've been traveling lately and I've been busy.
And what's this... A new category entitled Jos and the women's entrepreneurial group she formed called Promote Her Business that I promote online via social media and attend/ organize many subsequent meeting and events for. 25%. We're a busy group.
Oh look another new category that consists of 23% of my time. Because one of the objectives of Promote Her Business is to support women's favorite caused in the community, I began trying to help raise funds for 3 causes PHB has decided to focus on this year. One of them is called CCPY. It's a non-profit, mentoring program that helps at-risk-teens in East San Jose. Initially I just went in to find out more about the cause. Never do that. Never go to a non-profit organization with the intention of just popping your head in and finding out what it's about. It's like going to animal shelter with no intention of walking out with a puppy.
All of the teens had been through the mentoring program the previous year and went around sharing their individual stories. Each teen was asked to establish 3 goals for themselves to strive towards the year they started. The goals usually had to do with getting better grades, improving a relationship with a relative, and gaining confidence or improving a skill. They then discussed what it was like working with a mentor and trying to achieve the goals they set for themselves.
One girl said initially she gave her mentor attitude and tried to avoid talking with her. She would spend most of her nights out with friends partying and doing drugs. When she did check in with her mentor they would discuss goals and whether the things she was doing were helping her achieve them or leading her further from them.
The thing that ended up getting to her was the fact that her mentor never judged her or told her she was bad or wrong. Instead she became an impartial third eye that helped her see clearly what she was doing and what kind of an impact it was having on her life. She could then see it was driving her further away from her goals -one of which was improving her relationship with her mother who she was always arguing with. Eventually she stopped doing drugs, she stopped partying nightly, and her mom and she now get along great.
A boy said he use to be angry all the time. He had friends who were part of a gang and he was considering joining them. He too initially avoided his mentor. Then as time passed he saw that the mentor was always there whenever he called and would always show up. His mentor became a reliable source he could trust that genuinely just wanted to support him. When he looked at the friends he was hanging out with the things they would do, he decided they weren't having a positive impact on his life and he was able to focus and do greater things without that kind of influence in his life.
To sit in a circle and hear these stories and see how happy and bright these kids are -you'd never know what they went through and how much they've progressed in such a short period of time. The transformation was undeniably inspiring. I saw an opportunity to give back and also an opportunity to grow in ways we don't get the chance to most days. So I signed up with CCPY and now they're on my schedule.
Speaking of which...
I'm booked until November.
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