Toastmasters for Decluttering? Open House, May 4th

April 23, 2021

For the past 8 months, I have been working on getting a Toastmasters club chartered. This is my last step to being able to achieve my “DTM” or “Distinguished Toastmaster” Award. I have been a Toastmaster for about 5 years now, and absolutely love it! The club I have been working on getting chartered started off as a Corporate Club for T-Mobile employees. As of today, we are officially transitioning away from the Corporate Club model and moving to a Community Club model! Yay! So, what does this mean for you? Well, a few things. First and foremost, this means that we are no longer restricted to T-Mobile employees and may invite any person 18 years or older to the club. Your grandma, your best friend from childhood, your preacher, people you work with, whoever wants to join can. As we drive towards chartering the club this is going to greatly expand our opportunities to grow. To celebrate this momentous occasion, fellow Toastmaster, Ty Reed, will be the guest speaker at our Open House on May 4th. Ty gave a speech a few months ago, and we were all blown away by how inspiring he is! View Ty’s LinkedIn Profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyreedmba/

Ty Reed, guest speaker

Please join us!

Meeting Time: Tuesday, May 4th, 2021, from 7:30-8:30pm

Meeting Location: Online! We meet via Webex (not Zoom). Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/SnoqualmieTM

Club meetings will continue to be Tuesday evenings from 7:30-8:30pm, so if you can’t make the open house, please join us for another meeting. You can learn more about the club here.

I often give speeches about how Toastmasters can help you declutter and get organized. Here’s a list of just SOME of the ways Toastmasters can help:

When you feel like you don’t belong, that’s a recipe for over indulging in other areas of your life, such as shopping. Over-shopping leads to lots of clutter! Toastmasters is an excellent way to make quality friends. I met some of my very best friends through Toastmasters! Feeling like you don’t belong could also trigger a desire to over-eat, over-drink, or numb out in other ways. Acting on these impulses will zap your energy and you won’t feel motivated to get organized, and you probably won’t have the physical, emotional, or mental strength to get organized.
Toastmasters attracts a certain quality of conscientious, driven, compassionate, people. When you find yourself surrounded by the Toastmasters type, you will naturally take on some of these healthy characteristics. You will feel more driven to get things done in your life rather than squander your time on meaningless activities. Toastmasters propel thought. You’ll get book recommendations, new perspectives, and you’ll feel inspired to “get s#it done!”.
The act of writing a speech will help you organize your thoughts. When your thoughts are organized, you’ll notice your surroundings become more organized too.
The act of delivering a speech will help you process your thoughts. So instead of ruminating about an event, or dwelling on certain aspects of someone else’s personality, your life will start to make more sense. When things don’t make sense, your brain can fixate on them, trying to understand a situation. Verbalizing your thoughts in a semi-formal way (rather than just rambling to a friend or venting to a therapist) helps you process your thoughts in a healthy way. If negative thoughts have been holding you back, you’ll soon be able to think about more productive or creative ideas. This will help give your life more meaning, and more structure, which will result in more meaning and structure with your home as well.
Sometimes people hold onto things because they haven’t processed the event. Think about the objects of an ex-partner, or loved one who has passed away. We tend to hold on to these “mementos” as a way of bookmarking the event in our mind. Through verbalizing authentic thoughts in a safe environment, you’ll naturally start to let go of these physical reminders in a healthy way. As you process your thoughts, you’ll also be able to strengthen your brain’s ability to let go of what it no longer needs. This about 95% of an intuitive process- 5% logical. Too often, people try to decide if they’ll need something based on logic, not intuition, and so they end up keeping way more than they need. In addition to being able to filter out what thoughts you no longer need to hold onto, you’ll also be able to filter out what belongings you no longer need to keep in your home.
One of the best ways to strengthen your intuition is to spend more time in joy. Joy is a high vibration feeling, one that is close to matching the vibration of your higher self. By attending Toastmasters meetings regularly, and experiencing the joy you get from your connection to the other members, joy from listening to inspiring, meaningful, and funny stories, and joy from expressing your truth, you will be more in touch with your intuition. The more you are in touch with your intuition, the more you will find yourself in the right place at the right time. You will also be able to strengthen your trust in the divine so that you can believe you will always have everything you need at any given time. Lots of times people hold onto things because they’re coming from a “lack” mindset. When you’re in touch with your intuition, you’ll be able make decisions from an “abundance” mindset, which will make it much easier to let go of things you truly do not need anymore.
Through these consistent casual encounters (Toastmasters meetings), you’ll be able to develop a true connection with other people. Sometimes what we talk about is serious, sometimes it’s silly, but it’s always authentic. Instead of stumbling through an hour’s worth of small talk at a party or networking event, you’ll get to talk about things that really matter. These are the ingredients for true bonds!
You’ll develop your communication skills- both listening and speaking. Lots of times people who live together can get really frustrated at each other because of clutter. One person wants things one way, and the other person may think that’s too ridged, or too lackadaisical. Through Toastmasters, you’ll learn how to speak up for your needs, and you’ll also learn how to tune in to what your partner is really trying to communicate.
Toastmasters builds leadership skills and confidence so that you’ll be able to make decisions more decisively with less regrets.

How has Toastmasters helped you get organized? Send me a message, I’d love to hear about it!

Want to read another blog post about Toastmasters and organization? Check out this post from 2017.