I just gave a new speech tonight for Toastmasters, called “How to Choose a Speech Topic”. I just made a recording of the speech available under the speaking section, and here is the text if you’d rather read it. Enjoy!
How many of you tend to procrastinate?
Good, so I’m not alone!
Are any of you perfectionists?
I am.
I hold myself to a very high standard and it’s usually unrealistic. Even so early in my speaking career, I feel that I need to have a professional quality speech and deliver it perfectly. Maybe some of you could relate to that.
I am here to talk about choosing a speech topic. The main thing that I want to get across to you is, don’t over think it. Just pick something from your life, and tell a story to support your point. Add some humor- it’s like putting some Tabasco sauce on your mashed potatoes. It keeps things interesting.
It’s funny how I came to this realization. I give myself a hard time and feel like I have to be the best at everything. I prepared a speech on the importance of making mistakes. It was very serious and I wanted it to have a profound message. After working on it for hours, I hated it. I didn’t think it was up to my standard at all. I couldn’t even stand reading it silently to myself, let alone out loud. That’s how bad it was. I knew it needed a lot of work, but I kept procrastinating and avoiding it. I procrastinated for several weeks.Then, Monday came around. That was yesterday. I didn’t have a speech and I tried working on what I had, but I was just making it worse. “Well, I’ll just have to cancel my speech at the last minute” I thought to myself. “No other choice.” I can’t speak without having content worthy of publication in “The New Yorker”. I’ll make a fool of myself and people will realize that I’m not really a great speaker yet. My house of cards will come tumbling down on me and they will see that it was all an act, even if it was a clever one.
Ok, I need to speak on something. I’m not going to cop out. I’m going to give the speech. I need to come up with a topic quickly. I know, maybe I can look up a bunch of random stuff on Wikipedia until I find something worthy of a speech. I read about I-Fest, the international festival of Christian puppetry and ventriloquism. That’s a great idea! I could even make some puppets and put on a little show! But then I realized my sewing machine is broken and I’m running a bit low on sequins.
Brainstorming other ideas wasn’t working either. All of my ideas just seemed lame. I mean, who wants to listen to a speech about how often I clean my bathroom or what I ate for breakfast this morning. Those are just bad ideas.
Since I couldn’t come up with anything, I decided to write a speech on an aspect of writing a speech. Those who can’t do, teach. I’ll write a speech about selecting my speech topic! But there’s a slight problem here. I don’t know how to select a speech topic, that’s my whole problem! I started writing, and hoped that I could figure it out along the way. Maybe I could confuse the audience, throw in a joke or two, and they won’t notice that I didn’t actually give them any pointers.
The funniest thing happened though. Once I thought about it, I realized that your choice of topic isn’t a life and death decision as I previously thought. Life will go on. My speech could never create world peace overnight. It was heartbreaking, but I realized for the first time that the world doesn’t revolve around what I do.
We’re all here for the same reason right? To get experience and to learn. If you can’t think of a good enough speech topic and you never get up and speak, that’s counter-productive. I’m in toastmasters to give speeches and to get experience speaking. And I hope that’s why you are here too. Just write something on a piece of paper, get up here and speak it. I don’t think anyone is going to make fun of you or ridicule you. At least I hope not, for my own sake. Take the initiative to improve yourself. That’s all that matters.
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Tags: humor, public speaking