When I decided to learn how to speak in public, I was looking for a great platform, forgetting that there are platforms everywhere.
I did not know where to start from and my first outing had been pretty bad. I had been nominated as an Assistant Secretary in our youth fellowship and I was asked to give the announcement. I could not face our small congregation. Standing in front of everyone, bikemen were rioting in my head. The rioting bikemen in m...y feeble mind spilled the words out of my mouth. I was saying things but I could not hear myself.
To help my flustered confidence, I cracked a joke which refused to settle. Then everyone gave me this what-exactly-are-you-saying kind of look. What else will the righteous do? I began to explain my joke. But nope, I did not finish. Someone scratched his head, another batted an eye brow. I stepped down that podium, fired up that there has to be a better way.
After that encounter, the mirror in our room became a closer companion. I was always practicing, speaking, letting the mirror judge me, becoming the victor, triumphing over the vanquished. I joined the drama group, prayer group, evangelism, anything that would help. I practiced severally and my next assignment was like a stage play delivered with the precision of a well-rehearsed script.
Today I look back on those days when my lips were stuttering, when I would decide to preach in a bus I was traveling in, only to end up looking at trees and electric poles as they sped by. I see how God's grace was released to help my weakness, I see how the courage to speak up has shaped who I am. I am still becoming for according to Jim Conor, life is an unfolding process of becoming.
Many times, we want to achieve something but we don't want to do what the task demands. We want to wish the responsibilities away and embrace the result of the process. But the first task is to start the process. To ask the right questions. When we ask uncommon questions, we get uncommon answers. Yet it will take a measure of boldness to run towards the answers to the asked questions.
Today, much practice in the area of speaking has washed away my timidity. I have not attained the height I want but I am not where I used to be. Timidity rubs people of who they could be. It is the difference between schooled people getting nothing achieved and unschooled people accomplishing so much. Audacity will buy you more in the market place than timidity would give you in a life time.
No matter where you come from, no matter your religion, timidity will rub you of your shine while courage will push you a step further to the life you've always dreamed of. Which would you embrace today?
Timidity or Courage?
Stand Out, Be Exceptional.
Sincerely yours, D-Motivator.
