Life and Random Thinking

A Daunting Task, but a pleasant one.

Posted on June 17, 2011 by dfolstad58

How to give praise? My next Toastmaster manual speech requires me to give someone praise. An interesting process began in my head as I thought of eulogies. I would much prefer to praise someone while they are alive so that they know how I felt, how they had inspired me, taught me and what a gift it is to be in their circle, how important those memories are.

Not a family portrait

What a waste to share that message only after they can no longer hear the words that would mean the most to them.

I have a person in mind to talk about but I realized quickly I was thinking about how they had affected me. How their example I carry somehow by osmosis, how by watching them since I remember they showed me how to live, work hard, to give,and how to respect others. So many lessons I learned, others I have yet to master.

My Dad is the person I want to speak about. I can not help but to relate from my point of view but I want to show that he is that person all the time.

He was a fair manager at his work, but he is fair in all his relationships. He is fun to spend time with me, and fun! but hetelling stories and being light-hearted is part of his nature.

He is a rock of support to me and taught me, shared opinions about everything, and challenged me to develop opinions of my own but he communicates with everyone like that, well maybe not everyone to that extent. I think I am extra fortunate in how he communicates to me.

You see I have been blessed especially. Not only did I get to enjoy my Dad growing up but he has always remained close and supportive. A real special bonus came when I worked in the same office with him for 12 years. We had lunch and coffee breaks together and I count those times as priceless. Not tired of his company, I enjoyed playing golf and visiting with him and Mom on the weekends. Injections of memories directly to my heart arteries.

Thanks Dad for inspiring my speech to come, I hope I can do my Dad justice.

Love always.

Posted in family, Thinking Out loud, Uncategorized | Tagged Dad, Toastmasters | Leave a comment

Five Seconds to Success

Posted on June 14, 2011 by dfolstad58

As I sit watching baseball with my son, I have to laugh when I see the signs made by the coaches and other players on the baseball field. I have to wonder are they really signalling?

I suppose it isn’t that different from the flags that ships use to communicate back and forth. You need to be initiated and practiced to understand, and respond.

My Dad was a telegraph operator for the CN railway back when he was in his late teens and early 20’s. He could be half-asleep due to long days of heavy work, and long dark nights alone but his practiced ear could still pick out the dots and dashes when a signal came down the line for him. These were the original party lines, and each person on the telegraph was half listening and half discarding the dot dash messages depending on whether the message was for them. Amazing how our minds work and how we can pick up signals no matter how indistinct !!

Five Seconds to Success

I was told by an instructor, that in the first 5 seconds of a phone call, you set the tone for the whole call. That first impression is 90%. That is huge!

When you answer the phone, how do you do it? Is it a grunt, do you identify yourself? Are you smiling when you say hello?

I have experimented with this first impression. In my mind, I am firmly of the belief, that I have more success with my phone calls by the impression I can create in the first five seconds. I don’t want the caller to be on the defensive, I want them to imagine an alert, happy person who is interested in their call, and (this is the point) I don’t want them to be defensive, or worse – on the offensive right at the onset.

Here is the challenge for you. Try for one day, just for one day to answer the call like you are expecting a call from the lottery corp. Your upbeat, and friendly tone will set the tone for great communication, and success.

Never a second chance to make a First Impression

Remember the key is how you answer the phone, try to smile :), be positive. i.e. thanks for calling and say it like you mean it. Remember you have five seconds at the beginning of the call to pile the chips in your favor for the rest of the call. I hope the effort, and experiment pays you big dividends.

Posted in Thinking Out loud, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Perfect 270 Degree Jump

Posted on June 9, 2011 by dfolstad58

I recently attended a meeting at the Osoyoos Toastmaster Club, I was fortunate to be there for a speech from Sean Wurz.

His speech was 7 minutes long, he removed the lectern away from his speaking area and did not rely on notes. All commendable attributes to make note of, but what really spoke was his inspiring message.

It all started in that place where most disasters are born. The circumstances around its conception remain unclear. Perhaps I was trying to impress a girl. Maybe I was trying to one up a friend. Or perhaps, I was just feeling a little too good about myself. Whatever its origins, I got it into my head that I was going to do a 360 (in the air) on skis. I practiced the move in my head, I imagined twisting my shoulders and making a clean landing. Splat. I didn’t quite make it. Not the first time, nor the second time, nor any subsequent time I tried it.

My idea did not translate to success.

Ideas are funny things. Sometimes they lead to success, and sometimes they don’t. So often we look at the latter as failure. But is it really? Ideas shape our world. We can see this clearly all around us. whether it be in trivial places like the world of sports, or in our own lives.

Ideas are funny things, and Sean’s opening about his failed 360 degree spin, or his successful 270 degree spin made me wonder where his speech was leading. He then spoke about sports, and he clearly knew more about sports than I did. He started to get to the heart of his speech. That every person needs to be willing to attempt, to risk failure, and to accept that you may not succeed, but that you should not allow that potential failure to block you from trying.

The greatest thing about accepting failure is that it guarantees that you will be upwardly mobile. There is a proverb that says God resists the proud but He exalts the humble.

Let’s face it, willingly embracing failure takes humility. Once again, the upside is that once you embrace failure you will be upwardly mobile. Let’s face it, when you’re wrong, or you’ve clearly failed, there is nowhere to go but up.

Like Sean and his 360 degree attempt while skiing, you may never realize success in one particular endeavor, but in embracing failure with a smile on your face you may encourage someone else to consider something or try something they never would have done otherwise.

Somewhere down the line, that person will realize success beyond their greatest dreams.

And that, is the real beauty of a perfect 270

Dive into challenges!

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Posted in Toastmasters, Uncategorized | Tagged Osoyoos Toastmasters, success, Toastmasters | 1 Comment

Making a Difference- Beads for Life

Posted on June 7, 2011 by dfolstad58

Here is quick link to the NBC Nightly news that explains how paper beads are making a difference, life changing difference. Beads for Life. ← Click here !!

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If you go to BeadforLife.org what you will not see is swimsuit models. What you will see is real women, women to whom life is tough, whose dreams are to provide a home with a floor, buy medicine for themselves and their children, maybe own a cart to sell food.

Listen to them sing thank you to Beads for Life – that’s real.

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Beads For Life – Eradicating Poverty One Bead at a Time

Posted on June 7, 2011 by dfolstad58

Recently I made a blog here about an organization called Under The Same Sun. I made that blog after learning about the need to help albinos in Africa. I learned about that situation because of a speech in my Toastmasters Club #641259. Toastmasters is all about education! See the post or check the website to learn.

Today I received an email from an organization called Beads For Life. I actually learned about this website after seeing an amazing program on television. The story explains how two women in Africa seeing the plight of women in Africa started this organization to help women in Uganda help themselves by giving these women the chance to go into business. You can see the joy in their faces, and hear it in their voices in the video below.

After learning how many women in the world make less than a $1.00 (that is ONE dollar) a day I decided this was my opportunity to give a speech and in the process educate myself, and others. As you can imagine, earning one dollar a day does not allow a person to buy enough food to feed a family (you are hungry and so would be your children), have decent shelter (you must live in a slum, on dirt floors, sharing your hole in the ground and water sources with hundreds of others), you are prone to bad health (you can’t afford medicine) and you lack hope. No hope because you are working all day long under harsh conditions and are barely surviving. You also could be the only source of food, shelter, medicine, and hope for your family.

I learned how the program works, and bought beads, which I gave away and felt great about so that others could learn about Beads For Life.

check out the shopping and fight poverty one bead at time

Will you take the time to watch and learn?

I find it amazing how these women make beautiful jewelry with paper beads! Amazing♥

Posted in Toastmasters, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

These are the days to hold special

Posted on May 30, 2011 by dfolstad58

It is strange how in modern times we like to lament pollution, over-population, nuclear wars, and so on and somehow think times were rosier in the “old days”.

In the “old days” people died by the millions at very young ages from simple health problems like diarrhea. I walked through one cemetery in Penticton a week ago, and they have a section for children. It was sad to see so many headstones where the child died at birth or at very young ages. Modern times we witness miracles of medical science. A nurse at the hospital was taking my blood today and her son weighed just over 2 pounds and he survived, and he survived leukemia in his pre-teens. Myself I would never have survived in the “old days” because they didn’t do transplants and dialysis was not dreamed of.

What about other things? Houses are built to standards a zillion times stronger, and more airtight, and energy efficient.

Travel? In my grandfather’s day, people rarely travelled, and the bold few might risk a car or train excursion. Tires in those days punctured easily and if you drove, you had to know how to change a tire, and carry multiple spares. My grandfather drove on dirt roads in horrific conditions all winter long during the depression, and he had a big family to feed so he drove and worked 18 hour days.

Life expectancy? in the old days, a 50 year old was lucky, and even 40 years ago 70 was a good life expectancy.

I am glad to live now. I live in a time where I am around to see my children grow up, otherwise I would never have even seen my son born. The house I live in isn’t a palace but it is much nicer than the one my Dad was born in. He was born on the prairies in October 1938. Basically a one room shack, a little heat from a stove, constantly losing heat as no insulation to speak of. His uncle had to stand at the door and tell trick&treaters no treats that year because they were trying to keep the house warm and couldn’t open the door.

Travel. This is so cool. People do travel now and are able to travel huge distances in a single day. Travel is affordable and not just for millionaires. I have seen the Vatican with my family, cave churches in Cappadocia in Turkey with my Sue, ridden the tube in London with my family, and walked on the beach at midnight with them in Sweden.

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I never dreamed of doing those things and now those memories are mine; of mosques at dawn, white skirts of whirling dervishes, colorful hot air balloons in cool mornings over the fairie castles of Cappadocia, pizza and cappuccinos across from the Colosseum. An average person like me to have seen so much, it is amazing.

The reality is that we live in a wonderful time of opportunity, and have been blessed to be here living in this time.