Word: ASPIRE /əˈspaɪər/
💡 Record: Hunter recorded who used the word and collected good usage examples and grammar mistakes for the final report.
Bella opened with a powerful moment - pulling out a real letter from her pocket!
Pre-Meeting Question: If a crystal ball could tell you anything about your future, what question would you ask it and why?
Question: About stock market
"I don't want to know my future - I want them to happen surprisingly to get that freshness. However, if I know the stock market in advance for next 5 years, I could invest all my money and get fortune. With that money, I could do a lot more things!"
Question: Is my pathway effective?
"Standing on stage with ease, expressing myself thoughtfully and empowering others has always been my goal."
Short-term: I'd like to ask if the department leader has left yet. If not, when? 'Cause he's a grown man acting like a baby and leading us eastward to fetch scriptures from the western heaven!
Long-term: Will time travel exist in my lifetime? I want to go back and see my foolish self from childhood.
Question: Will there be a time tunnel in the future that allows me to travel back at any moment in history?
"History is filled with both glorious and dark moments. But we can only catch glimpses through books. If I had a chance to go back and experience the grandeur of history firsthand as a history enthusiast, that would be pure happiness."
Ano shared his own letter first: Two questions to his 80-year-old self
Ano prepared 8 questions about the future for tonight's speakers.
"I have many hobbies now - swimming, yoga, practice. I want to be a yoga teacher! I want to teach people how to keep healthy and make your body work very well and in good condition. Maybe this is my new aspiration!"
"Everyone wants money, furniture, everything. But maybe for myself, I want to ask: Are you really happy? I think happiness is very important for us. You should ask yourself from your heart - Do you really love your work? Your family? Did your aspiration become reality?"
"I will tell the future me the truth. The fact is, I am truly silly right now because you can't choose a wider choice at your right age. Something you don't experience, you will never know how it will result. If you don't aspire to become a doctor and didn't try to do that, that will never come true. Just do what you can and do your best at the now, and don't worry about problems in the future!"
💬 Ano's response: "Everyone at each time is good, not silly. We should be confident - every moment we are the best!"
"After 3 years later, I'm still working in this city and a lot of people are also around me in this journey - Toastmasters. It's been a long time, long distance, long history. I'm really happy to have all of you, my good friends, like my family members. We can improve together, grow together, and make more memories in this community. No matter what we go through - ups and downs - we have this very safe, very harmony atmosphere to go along together. Friends and family is our power to go through up and down!"
"One day, the future myself came to me. She will ask me not to be entrepreneur at my retirement age. As an entrepreneur, especially, it's quite difficult. We went through COVID-19 and China business slowdown. It's very tough time for me and my partners. But anyway, maybe the future myself will admire me - she will admire me very brave to take the team to go through for eight years."
"I hope it will never come true! First, it's gonna be a big storm - a blame, a lecture: 'Look! Always stay up so late, always scrolling on your phone, always watching videos in the dark! See, your eyes got some problem! And look at you, always eating trash, garbage food, fast food, fried chicken! Now you can laugh? Look at you! Look at your belly growing from a love handle to something different. Can you still see your feet when you look down?'"
"But then I'd say: Look up! Pull yourself together and start today! Remember the letter you wrote to yourself - you are different. This is a curse and it will NOT come true! You can change it right now, right here! Let's roll your sleeves up and let's do it tonight!"
"I hope everyone in 10 years can still have the angelic heart and remember why you came here. The key idea is you want to promote yourself in some aspect. In 10 years we can look back and see you really trained this idea and have a lot of progression. Use the word: you have an aspiration!"
"For me, I want to find a reason why Toastmasters can be very influential in the world. Last year I tried to build a speech club by myself and even didn't know what Toastmasters was. I only had 2 members including me. The reason I came here is to find a way how to build a speech class. Now I want to use this platform to train myself on social media and short videos. Whatever you do in this club - nobody pays you - so find a way and train yourself as much as you can. Don't care about others. Nobody will judge you."
"I never think about my future. Brother Bing always told me, 'You should think about your goal!' But I never done that - it's too hard for me. But this question made me think a lot. I use AI to describe it, and every morning I read the updates and put them on my WeChat moment. Every day my parents give likes on my moment. So I can know my parents are here, and my parents can feel their son is also here."
"Yesterday my cousin called me around 9pm saying he called my father several times but no answer. I felt nervous - what happened to my father? But then I calmed down because yesterday I saw my father gave likes on my WeChat moment. So I think they must be safe. I had a video call - they are really good!"
"This is a thing I should think about. In the future I should learn for 10,000 days on my Red Note. If I can't do it, I will regret for my whole life!"
"In the future, we can be brave to think about the future because I think what we think is what is true. So we could have a bigger dream about the future and make friends with our future selves."
"Last weekend I read my diary from college time. I wrote: 'If I have no money in the future, how could I make a girlfriend and come to Beijing?' At that time I wanted to come to Beijing to learn, but later I found I didn't make a girlfriend and also I was poor. So I want to tell him: Don't think a lot, just do the thing you could do!"
Dynamic Leadership L2-1: Understanding Your Leadership Style
Opening Question to Bella: "Do you think you still growing as fast as when you were a student?"
Story 1: Father's Lesson (Age 9)
When I was 9 years old, I studied in elementary school. One morning I didn't want to go to school and just hid with my best friend in the countryside yard. We even forgot about lunch.
In the afternoon, my father found me. He kicked me at my butt. It really hurt. Following that, I never did that again.
Lesson Learned: I learned discipline from my father. Because I'm a student, I should follow the rules. Even now, I arrive early to GC Toastmasters meetings and stay until the end. Discipline isn't punishment - it's respect for time, for others, for yourself.
Story 2: Hot Pot Dinner (Recent)
Several weeks ago, I was with my family. I have two daughters. We live on the 16th floor. My little daughter didn't want to take the elevator, so we walked step by step downstairs, and I held her tiny hand very firmly. After her calligraphy class, we came back from 1st floor to 16th floor, counting loudly: "One, two, three, four..."
When we reached my apartment, my daughter said: "Daddy, do you know what we will have for dinner?" She told me my wife bought ingredients for hot pot!
We were preparing. I cut the vegetables into very small pieces and put them into the wide round plate. When I was done, my daughter just shouted at me: "I want to do that! You can't do that for me!" She said this more than three times. That made me feel very annoyed and irritated.
Then I shouted at her: "Do it! Do it! Do it yourself!" That really made her burst into tears. She came to see her mother. I was sitting on the sofa in a very bad mood, thinking: "Why should I have children?"
Much later, my daughter came back to me and hugged me very tightly. That melted my heart. At that time, I knew my daughter used her heart to let me know I should stay with her. I should have the responsibility because I'm a father.
🎵 Daughter's Voice Recording: "爸爸，我好想你呀，你回来~"
"Every time I'm in bad mood, I listen to the song from my daughter. It makes me feel very happy, very relaxed."
Key Message:
🎵 AI-Generated Song: "We don't stop growing when we get old..."
Warren created a song using AI based on this philosophy!
What Warren Did Brilliantly:
Suggestions for Next Time:
"Looking forward to your next storytelling project! Thank you!"
Ice Breaker Speech
Opening: "Thank you to Lei who gave me this fantastic opportunity to join Toastmasters, which I fell in love with right away!"
Background:
Past Career - Accounting Firm (2015):
After graduation, I started working in accounting firms conducting financial statement audits and internal control audits for listed companies. Since these were listed companies, their financial data could affect stock prices directly, so all team members had to sign confidentiality agreements. We were not allowed to hold any client's stock.
One company I audited - its net profit grew by 20% that year. I knew its stock price would rise a lot once the financial statement was released. I really wanted to buy them! If I had, I would have made a killing profit. What a shame I couldn't. Even my family's information was submitted and monitored. Of course, I have my professional integrity - I only imagined that.
The Breaking Point: I worked overtime a lot - usually got off around 2 AM. During busy season when reports were due, we basically pulled all-nighters. I remember one time vividly: I got off work around 4 AM and had to get up around 5 AM to catch the train for a business trip. I didn't sleep at all - just prepared stuff for the trip.
It was winter. I walked down the street feeling so cold and sorry. The street lights were still on. At that moment I was this close to crying. I almost broke down because I was so exhausted. Why did I push myself so hard? There's still a long life ahead of me. I couldn't treat my body like this.
Key Realization:
Current Life - Finding Balance:
Closing: "Thank you to Hunter who helps me prepare my speech. Thank you to Sarah and Brother Bing who is willing to be my mentor. I wish all of us could find the optimal speed in our life, strive for work-life balance, and keep going forward steadily!"
"Everyone, Julie gave us a good speech! I think it's difficult for me to evaluate this speech because it's very, very good. The speech delivery is not as a freshman - more like level 2 or level 4, not level 1!"
What Julie Did Excellently:
One Suggestion:
"I observed you speak too quickly. It's not bad for you, but slowing down a little bit can help everyone understand better!"
"Thank you, everyone!"
"Today we had about 30 minutes table topics session and at least 8 speakers on stage! Very high number, very good!"
Individual Feedback:
Feedback for TTM Ano:
"Thank you, everyone!"
Meeting Status: We are only 9 minutes behind schedule! We did a great job!
Time Highlights:
First-Time Timer Reflections:
"Overall, we all did a very good job! Thank you!"
Word of the Day Usage: "Thank you everyone! You really remember this word - Aspire! A lot of friends used it!"
Pronunciation Tip: For Ano - "Chef, not shelf! Chef!" (Chef is more important than cook!)
🎵 Ah-Counter & "Hug Master" - Memorable Quotes:
"Wonderful job everyone! Thank you!"
Special Thanks: "I learned from Cary and Brother Bing - they are seasoned and experienced Toastmasters!"
Evaluation Team Feedback:
For Timer Joanna:
For Toastmaster Bella:
For TTM Ano:
For Evaluator Brother Bing:
For Evaluator Untie:
"OK, no more! Thank you already!"
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