Trying something new: exciting at any age

As these two photos show, wrangling a snake for the first time is momentous at any age, whether being helped by your big brother at five, or deciding at 80 that maybe it’s time to be a bit braver about a life-long fear of these legless reptiles. I can still hardly believe, now, that after saying “no, no, no” quite firmly, I suddenly thought “why not?”, and just did it. What I didn’t expect was just how good it still feels, afterwards, to have done it.

And now, I’m preparing for another new challenge, very different in all but the fact that it has me facing another of my long-held fears. In this case, it’s public speaking. It’s not, however, that I’ve never done that before. In my work, I often had to get up and speak – apprehensively from a sheaf of notes – at conferences and other public forums. The thing is that I did it in a high state of anxiety, and I’ve always wanted to learn how to do it comfortably, but as the more recent years have passed in an enjoyable retirement that didn’t have a public speaking part, the need to do something about that had evaporated.

Until now. Now, I’m on the verge of having my first book for a (hopefully) wide readership published, and I’m going to have to promote it in all sorts of settings. Which means going right back into my discomfort zone of standing up and speaking in front of a group. Unless I do something about it. Which I’ve decided to do.

I’d long heard about the Toastmasters clubs and how they promote public speaking in a supportive environment. So, visiting a local club, or two, to see if that might help seemed like a good idea. And it most certainly was. Actually, I went to three different ones, meeting at different times of the day and evening, and found that altogether they presented a very encouraging environment in which to have a go at speaking spontaneously about a range of topics, and then getting useful feedback on the strengths of your approach, as well as on those aspects that could be improved.

What I was fascinated to find was that many members have been in their clubs for very long periods of time – one for 37 years – for what was clearly the continuingly enjoyable stimulation of the range of activities and topics that are the basis of their programs, as well as the friendly social atmosphere in which they’re held. And, interestingly, it was also clear that I was in the fairly unique position of being quite old to be only now making a move to join. Not that that made a jot of difference to the welcome I felt from the groups.

And now, having chosen one to formally join, I’ve done that thing, again, of saying “no, no, no”. In this case, it was because of feeling very unready to actually make a prepared speech, in response to an email looking for a third volunteer to be a “speaker”, on the theme of “Remember when”. And then thinking “why not”, and following that up, now, with an email volunteering to do just that. Which, at this moment, has left me feeling excited rather than apprehensive.

Anne Ring ©2022