This Guy’s a Competent Communicator

Memorizing an Entire Speech is Difficult

In December, I completed my 10th and final Toastmasters Speech on the path to fulfilling my Competent Communicator certification.

The intention of the speech was to Inspire with the length being between 8 and 10 minutes.

On one hand, I feel I’ve learned a great deal from presenting 10 speeches at my Toastmasters Club. I’ve become much more confident and have a better feeling for what types of stories work when writing my speeches. On the other hand, I still haven’t mastered the ability to speak, and say everything I want, without notes. This was evident in the below speech. 8-10 minutes is longer than any of the others, so my attempts to memorize the entire thing left me pausing to search for the next line far too often. I am sure I can overcome this struggle with more practice.

With the certification out of the way, I can now relax a bit and have some more fun with my future speeches. I’ve got a couple of clever ideas I can play around with. Stay tuned to see them.