That’s what happened to me regarding TM club. I’ve known about it for several years. One of my client and a colleague were members. My client would ask me to do in-depth research on any topic that he chose to speak about. I would spend hours researching those issues to prove his hypothesis. And I would say to myself, omg if it takes such humongous efforts to prepare for a speech, I could never afford to do it.
Besides, it was my Do It Yourself, my DiY spirit rebelling against the idea of someone teaching me how to speak. Come on, I learned to read on my own. Do I really need to take lessons on how to speak. Impossible, not happening, that’s what I said to myself. Now don’t be shocked to hear that I learned to read by myself. Once you know that I am the youngest in my family, it’ll be easy to understand. Being youngest is very tough, your siblings treat you like a liability and parents forget that your questions need to be answered. They’ve already done it several times before.
Our house was mecca of magazines, comics, and story books floating around, this was pre-TV era. All my brother sisters were happily reading story books. No one would narrate it to me. I’d go crying to my mom to read me stories, I knew she couldn’t deny me. My mom is a tough cookie, she figured there would be no end to my demands and she would end up reading the same story repeatedly. Her response was, do you see any of your brother sisters crying like you and bothering me. You want to know the stories then you learn how to read it. Poor me the caterpillar had a shock of my life. But my desire to know the story was greater and I transformed immediately without any resistance. Of course my mom helped me decipher the letters then connect it together to form words. I followed my mom all around the house, reading out loud, this way she could correct my mistakes and I get my stories straight.
Allow me to confess, Like any one of us, I have transformed so many times in life, yet I was persistently resisting against the idea of joining TM Club where I’ll learn how to speak. Until I attended the SERA meeting, in this room, I had no idea how much fun it is. As I am listening to the fascinating stories of speaker after speaker, I was spellbound. Why didn’t anyone tell me before that it’s actually all about story telling. I can spin my yarn uninterrupted and no one will stop until the red light, how terrific! I was ready to sign on the dotted line immediately.
On a serious note, recently, I was shocked to know how badly I really need to learn to speak. I was in a meeting with my director and said 715, poor man couldn’t understand. Finally quite frustrated I uttered 7-1-5 and that did the trick.
Which takes me way way back, on my maiden flight to USA from UK, I exchanged pleasantries with my co-passenger and said my name is Vandana. He said, you spell it wandana, I said no it begins with v and got my lesson in the difference of pronunciation between v and w, because in my language we don’t have such distinction. All the way from UK to US, I kept reciting my name, because I wanted to make sure that people don’t confuse that it begins with W.
Now that communication is the primary key to success in my business as residential real estate broker, it if of utmost importance that I enunciate the words clearly and speak fluently a language that is fully understood and appreciated by others. My meeting with the director and my deeply buried memory of mispronouncing my name, led me to the transformation in embracing TM club. Hopefully with the help of fellow SEC Roughriders, one day I will find my wings and transform from creepy crawly caterpillar to butterfly.
