Be the Change You Want to See 

Fellow Toastmasters and Guests,

Do you have a motto for your life? Do you have one short sentence

that defines you? Do you have one short sentence that motivates

you, every day, to do the next right thing, to take that next step

towards your goals?

About a year ago, I started on a quest to find my motto, to find

• That one short sentence that defines what’s important to me
• That one short sentence that would give me that extra kick,
• again and again.

I had to ask myself:

• Who am I? What are my values?  I couldn’t tell.
• How well is my life expressing those values? My guess was: Not very well.
• And how do I get from where I am now, to where I really want to be? If I knew that, it would be swell.

Fellow Toastmasters, you’re all a part of this awesome organization

because you want to improve yourselves. Therefore, I invite you to

think through those same questions with me:

Who are you? What is important to you?  When I asked myself that

question, I couldn’t tell.

What could I do? After several unsuccessful attempts at answering

this question myself, I enlisted the help of a Toastmasters colleague,

a life coach, and by talking to him my values, the things that are

important to me, slowly surfaced:

• Learning
• Creativity
• And, above all, Cooperation!

Do you know who you are? Do you know what is important to you?

How well does your life express those values? When I asked myself

that question, I was definitely able to tell: My life expresses my

values not very well. I was healthy. I had a wonderful family - but

except for my husband, they were all at least 3000 miles away. I

had a high paying job in the computer industry. I had many friends –

my adopted family of Toastmasters, my adopted family of Swiss

expatriates, and all my other friends.

I had cool hobbies:

• Toastmasters, which I had been doing for almost 5 years
• Designing mechanical puzzles, and
• Traveling, to meet new people, experience different cultures

But did my life really reflect my values? I had tried my best to make this a successful life and many people attested that I was a success. Yet somehow, I didn’t feel like a success. How well does your life express your values? How do you get from where you’re now to where you want to be? I thought to myself: How can my life express more closely what’s important to me: Learning, Creativity, and Cooperation.

Then, I remembered 7 words spoken by a corporate counsel at my workplace, 10 years earlier. I had just changed from working on one project to working on another project when one morning, I ran into this powerful person in the cafeteria. My previous project had benefited her and she said to me: “I hear you’re moving on to a new project, Congratulations! I wish you all the best. I’m sure you’ll be an asset wherever you go!”… ”You’ll be an asset wherever you go!” - Those words had a profound influence on me. I would do almost anything for that attorney, just because of those words.

That was it – that’s one thing I wanted do: To validate people more, to take that one next step in the direction of more cooperation.

• I started in TM: I tried to start most emails with a ‘thank you’ or a compliment
• When I gave my monthly reports to the District, I started talking about ‘catch somebody doing something right…” mentioning the fabulous things happening throughout our District and who made them happen
• And then it spilled over to my workplace: I started ‘catching coworkers doing something right and telling them about it’

After a while, people started responding: They seemed happier -

That felt so good! They became more cooperative. I felt so powerful!

And I realized: I don’t have to wait for others to show more

cooperation. I can be the change I want to see, and thereby affect

the life of those around me.

Just like those 7 words out of the mouth of that powerful attorney

will stick with me for a lifetime, benefiting me again and again, so

can my words and actions have a powerful effect on others.

We, as individuals, can each accomplish a lot by being the change

we want to see.

In Chaos theory there is something called the butterfly effect: It

states that the wings of a butterfly can create tiny changes in the

atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado.

We can be like the butterfly; the movement of our wings can alter

the life of another person, in ways we can’t foresee.  That’s how I chose a Butterfly as the logo and Be the Change You Want to See as the motto.  

These words, Be the Change You Want to See, and the picture of the butterfly, are inspiring us to get up and take action.

These words are empowering us:

• we don’t have to wait for an expert
• we don’t have to wait for the perfect situation

We can start the transformation by Being the Change We Want to See.

We were all given the gift of imagining something better, and the opportunity to take that next step in the direction of our goals:

• If we want  our environment to be more rich, let’s contribute.
• If we want our environment to be more loving, let’s love.
• If we want to transform our lives, let’s transform.

What do I imagine for the future of our District?

I love learning. I love it when I see people learn, develop, transform. Thanks to Toastmasters I was able to transform: I used to be so shy that it took me 5 years to muster up the courage to attend the first TM meeting. Now, another 5 years later, I can stand up in front of 150 people and give a speech: I transformed from a caterpillar into a butterfly. My vision is to be a part of this team of District Leaders, Club Leaders, and regular Toastmasters, a team that explores ways to strengthen our organization so

• each club member is offered that positive and supportive environment,
• each club member finds mentors and role models and
• each club member gets challenged to step outside their comfort zone and try something new

The goal is to enable each club member to ultimately transform

• from silence to having a voice
• from being a follower to being a leader, and
• from self-doubt and non-involvement to active engagement and caring for others.