I’ve been struggling to get myself back into the habit of exercising regularly. Right now I’m only riding my bike on the weekend when Iggy accompanies me. Being a weekend warrior doesn’t build up my endurance much.
Today I left a message at my gym. I’m going to sign up for some personal training sessions. Maybe that’ll make me buckle down.
Do you have any tips that might help me return to regular exercise?
How to rid your speech of uhs, ums and the like
I volunteered to do my first "Tip of the Week" for tomorrow’s Toastmasters meeting. My draft message follows below.
The topic for my Tip of the Week identified itself at last week’s meeting. I gave a speech,which you received very kindly. I got off very easy in the evaluations. But the Ah Counter nailed me. Very politely, of course. I had twelve ahs or ah equivalents in my speech.
That inspired me to research how I — and you — can decrease the number of ahs in our speeches. I turned to my friend who teaches public speaking to colleage students. She had two suggestions.
Number one: I should tape myself so I become more aware of my ahs.
Number two: I should practice my speeches on my husband. Get him to stop me when I say ah, then force me to start over from the beginning.
I’m going to try these two tactics. You can be the judge of whether they work for me. If you try them, I’d like to hear about your experience with them. Please tell me if they work for you.
On my first tape recorded run, I managed to deliver this one-minute speech without ahs. But will I succeed in the heat of the moment? I’ll do my best.