Ladies and Gentlemen:
Let me tell you the story of a man named Roger who one morning ordered live chickens for his daughter's school project. You know, for the kind of things kids would do like feed them and monitor their growth and later make reports to submit to the teacher. The same morning, however, he had to take the family out to meet up with another family and so off they went locking up the house. After a couple of hours, the delivery man arrived with the chickens and finding no one at home simply left them at the doorstep and left.
Now when Roger and family came back, they found the chickens all over the place and so the family had no choice but to try and catch them. You could imagine all the commotion that ensued: the chickens cackling, the children screaming, the running here and there. The chicken-chasing even went as far into the backyard of the neighbors. Well, for the children, it definitely was fun. But for the couple... for the husband and wife, - it certainly was an ordeal, and Roger wasn't a bit happy about it. After having had gathered all the chickens, thus, he picked up the phone, called the delivery man up and - Hey Johnny, - he complained, that wasn't very wise what you did. You shouldn't have left the chickens by the doorstep! See, they all got free and we had to run all over the place to gather them back. And the bad thing was we caught only 11 chickens! Johnny laughed, however, and to that he replied: - Man, that wasn't so bad at all! You say you caught only 11? Why I left only 7!!!!
My dear friends, you might have been entertained by the story, but you know, I'd say it mirror-reflects a value called commitment. By definition, commitment refers to the state of being bound emotionally and intellectually to a course of action or to a person..... it is a trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose. Roger and family wanted the chickens... they needed the chickens....and they had to have them back even if they had to chase them far on to the neighbors' backyards. And nothing stopped them till they got them all. And as it was, they even got more!
Commitment, Ladies and Gentleman, surfaces in many aspects of life. Take marriage, for example. It takes commitment to have it happen as it does to make it stay. A man who has decided to take a particular woman to be his bride will do all he can to achieve his goal. He'll send her chocolates and flowers, he'll travel half the world if only to be with her, he'll even court her parents until the wedding day. And when the marriage is already there and both spouses want it to last, it needs both of them to make it work out in terms of unending give and take - till death do them part as it may.
Yet another example might be Michaelangelo.. Who, among us, Ladies and Gentlemen, wouldn't know him and his famous masterpiece at the Sistine Chapel! For years and years, he painted the fresco with his back laid on canvas with the paint dripping into his eyes till he was almost blind. And these weren't just up and down strokes of the brush, mind you. This was a painting of the Creation and of the Last Judgement. So you could imagine all those people and all those faces, and in effect- all that detail. But uncomplainingly, he went on and on until it was done. And if that wasn't commitment, I don't know what it is.
But now dear friends, shall we have the limelight on us? I am sure that after signing up with the West Conn Toastmasters, you came to know about all the intellectual fun we enjoy in here. On the other hand, I am sure you also realize that leadership and communication skills can here be achieved by doing - that is, by listening, by thinking, by speaking.....by trying to climb both the Communication and Leadership tracts- by trying to deliver our speeches and more so we earn our respective norms. Of course, it is not easy in itself. But you'll have to agree with me that what makes it easy is putting alongside with the task the fun and the camaraderie that we have. Just like living one day at a time, I am sure you can make a commitment to set a goal and move towards it step by step. And if you do, who knows, - instead of catching only 7 chickens, you might just catch 11!
Mister Toastmaster.....
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