The end of the Toastmasters Year is coming, and we should all end the year strong! In a time of transition, where you may be stepping down from an officer role and the club DCP plan will reset, it might feel like you might not want to put your best effort in, someone new will pick up the slack in a couple of weeks. We want to avoid that feeling. What serves us and our fellow Toastmasters is for us to keep being the best speaker, mentor, friend, and leader that we can be all the way until the final day of June. That is what I think of when I hear end the year strong.

I thoroughly endorse the message, but I think the phrase “end the year strong” makes Toastmasters sound like we are running a race. I would like to think of finishing the year complete. What does it mean finishing complete? When something is complete, it is done, finished, whole.

Look forward to the last weeks (as of this writing) of the Toastmasters year. What is there left to do? What can you do? One or two more members for the club? It can be done. An extra speech to complete a level, I bet at least one member of your club is in that position. Maybe that is all your club needs to be Distinguished. Even if it’s not, your club is continuing to move forward, gaining members, completing awards, and growing in their speaking and leadership skills. If your club is already at President’s Distinguished, you can keep going, adding members, earning education awards, and moving forward. When you get to the end of the year, you will know you did your best and can feel satisfied with your efforts, you can be complete.

Look back at your goals for the year. Which ones did you finish? Which ones did you make good progress on? Which ones did you not even start? Be ok with all of it. You contributed to the education of yourself and your fellow Toastmasters. Feel good about that, feel complete.

On June 30th, you can complete this Toastmasters year and look forward to creating the next year with a blank slate!

In Service,

Dave Schaal