Trust30 for June 30th: http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/matthew-stillman

My task was:

Mess up your hair. If you are wearing makeup – smudge it. If you have a pair of pants that dont really fit you – put them on. Put on a top that doesn’t go with those pants. Go to your sock drawer. Pull out two socks that don’t match. Different lengths, materials, colors, elasticity.

Now two shoes. You know the drill.

Need to add more? Ties? Hair clips? Stick your gut out? I trust you to go further.

Take a picture.

Get ready to post it online.

Are you feeling dread? Excitement? Is this not the image you have of yourself? Write about the fear or the thrill that this raises in you? Who do you need to look good for and what story does it tell about you? Or why don’t you care?

My answer:

I care about doing this a lot less than I used to. It seems to me that time and experience change ones outlook.

I see a lot of people caring so much about mechanics of speech delivery, including how they look, when they would connect so much better if they were themselves.

Be yourself.

Trust30 for June 28th: http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/sean-ogle

My task was:

Write down a major life goal you have yet to achieve or even begin to take action on. For each goal, write down three uncertainties (read: fears) you have relating to each goal. Break it down further, and write down three reasons for each uncertainty. When you have three reasons for your fear, you’ll be able to start processing the change because you know where the fear stems from. Now you’ll be able to make a smaller changes that push you towards your larger goal. So begins the process of “trusting yourself.”

My answer:

This one is worth doing, but will take some time.  I am going to post it without an answer and come back to it.

Trust30 for June 27th: http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/sam-davidson

My task was:

When did you feel most alive recently? Where were you? What did you smell? What sights and sounds did you experience? Capture that moment on paper and recall that feeling. Then, when it’s time to create something, read your own words to reclaim a sense of being to motivate you to complete a task at hand.

My answer:

This is great advice for creating a speech.  Engage the senses.  I’m going to give it a go.  How about you give it a go too?

Trust30 for June 26th: http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/harley-schreiber

My task was:

Think about the type of person you’d NEVER want to be 5 years from now. Write out your own personal recipe to prevent this from happening and commit to following it. “Thought is the seed of action.”

My answer:

Five years is such a long time. And this question feels like it boxes me in more than I would like. Why not pick 3 months and actually do those things instead?

What kind of speech would I never do? Well, it used to be interpretive reading. It is interesting to note that I grew more from that single speech than many of my other speeches.

My least favorite question so far, but there had to be one I guess.

Trust30 for June 24th: http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/patti-digh

My task was:

We are our most potent at our most ordinary. And yet most of us discount our “ordinary” because it is, well, ordinary. Or so we believe. But my ordinary is not yours. Three things block us from putting down our clever and picking up our ordinary: false comparisons with others (I’m not as good a writer as _____), false expectations of ourselves (I should be on the NYTimes best seller list or not write at all), and false investments in a story (it’s all been written before, I shouldn’t bother). What are your false comparisons? What are your false expectations? What are your false investments in a story? List them. Each keep you from that internal knowing about which Emerson writes. Each keeps you from making your strong offer to the world. Put down your clever, and pick up your ordinary.

My answer:

Wow!  This one really hits the bullseye!

In Toastmasters alone, I know I have raised my internal bar for speeches so high that I paralyze myself into doing no speeches at all.

Trust30 for June 23rd: http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/susan-piver

My task was:

If you could picture your intuition as a person, what would he or she look like? If you sat down together for dinner, what is the first thing he or she would tell you?

My answer:

I don’t think that they would look that much different than myself.  I have followed my intuition for most things, or have convinced it that it is wrong!
 
My intiution would tell me that it was always right, and I would respond that it wasn’t always right.