December and wind: stubborn leaves, as I am, still there

So it is late in time and years, so the winds blow strong from time to time, so all is not always sunny: we cling still stubborn, there!

And we get through, and we get things done, and when the wind is very strong we stop, for a moment. Perhaps, because I learned early that life is not smooth and not easy? Learned to fight, learned to persist. How long, that does not matter so much. My best friend Stephanie, used to tell me "do not die till you die"! And that was when I was barely 60. She had almost my age then: 83 and continued to teach and help others as long as she still could.

I had two wonderful path: Visionary Communication finished in 6 month; Leadership Development, that I begun towards end of August and will finish next week. If all goes well. In four month: second is more easy, and I went direct towards a goal and I chose it wisely.

Along this two, I finished also Presentation Manager, it took very long and was more painful. And I will eventually finish also Effective Coaching, even if I noticed only recently that it has at the end a HPL as required task. What it has to do with coaching? How will I find a goal related to the path? I will consider anyway if it was not so in time, my real first two the one's that have me more joy. The one's that I will continue after officially closed.

I just read, you can use any elective project from any path, redo it more then once or do it without credit when you feel like it. As for now, I even have a brand new path, Dynamic Leadership, waiting. I got attracted by it's Negotiation Project, yet to arrive there. It can wait.

Here is 1st September, as I begun to tell the stories for the Leadership Development path, breaking the ice with many relatives about our common ancestor: telling a story from her childhood.

I was 12 she was 92 when she told me, but that day in Normandy, kids of all ages and adults listened.

Yes, you can tell to any audience, it does not have to be your club. And yes, I had an evaluator near, a toastmaster who wrote me a feedback. Feedback I did not (or did I) add to my e-portofolio as by now I knew that only me would see it anyway.

Tuesday, I will tell my reflection on my path all the way to Oregon, to my last club I joined.

If all would be so easy! Well not easy but doable: because it depends only on me. Not all does. So? It will be up to me to try to persuade, to entice, to explain. And if not, in any case my path and what I learned through the projects in them, remain with me.

Mentoring?

Mentoring occupies a special place in Pathways, and is in three different projects that you can get as you are in Level 3.

The first is already there in the Level 2: thinking of a time when you were the Protege.

The second is a relatively short period of 3 month to mentor someone. And the third for 6 month, before you can be called Pathways way a Mentor.

It explains well the contracts between the two and how important is to think before you get into it with someone. As you see it in this image, it has to be a FIT between the two understanding how it works, how many time the Mentor can offer and when, and how each profit at long range from the relation.

I did have a few who told me "Julie, you are my mentor!" and alas, we did not make a contract and establish rules and times. So with one toastmaster it worked out, and I try to help as much as I can, he is very happy with it. The other toastmaster, wanted me to listen again and again: her time very important and mine if I ever needed to speak too, not at all. I felt I get less and less and have to give more and more. It does not work out this way. It got more and more one sided, plus I did not feel listened to.

Next time, if anyone ask me, I will be more willing to Coach for a specific problem or goal, rather then to mentor someone for long time.

But, for the first time in my life, almost since the Pathways begun: I become a Protege! Even if we did not determine it as formally as it is written, at the time neither of us got the Mentor manual, it does work, and each time I really needed, I got help and advice. Through this relation, I understood what a Mentor means. And of course, not tell you all the time what to do or how to do it, but listen and remember and come in when really needed.

I hope, from now on, even if I am not really a "mentor" material, more a "coach or trainer", I will be able to also Mentor, re-reading the Manuals and pondering it more before I enter such a relationship. Looking again at the image, it has to be a real good fit!

"Lessons Learned" project

How long a path will take?
How long a project will take?
How long a task will take us?

It depends.

When is a path finished? Well, I can answer this question: after your last Project is completed and delivered.

Well, after the last project there is always still a "Reflect on your path" but let us not count that one, that closes affectively the path for us.

Today, I delivered speech that one to give after the "Lessons Learned" meeting, held after an important meeting that we just finished leading with a team. A very short time is given to speak, after a very long task. And of course, it is asked also to write down the conclusions from what happened so that next time some of the problems could be avoided and get an even better meeting, it will be an ongoing task.

From this picture above, the first tree is missing. It is how my iPad showed the picture Paul White created with a bit of suggestions from me. There is a tree before: he created three storytelling toastmasters clubs around him. Then there is the Witty Storytellers Online club we created with Svetlana. Today, after our meeting, she remembered "indeed, at that time there where yet so few online club, and none speciality like ours." Now? They are more then one for every day of the week.

The small but bigger tree is the Story Swap in June between the three clubs in Virginia, near Washington DC and the bigger one above my head in this picture, the Event we created with Paul, conceived in August, as a goal through two parallel Paths, it happened the 2nd December a Story Swap between onsite and online with 15 storytellers speaking alternatively. The meeting to discuss it was soon after as my project asked for, the 7 December, and today the speech. A bit more then 7:30 minutes, it went away too fast.

Yes, I learned a lot from this Project even if it still confuses me. The evaluation forms speak more of how I lead then on Lessons Learned from the festival we held together with the storytellers from those clubs. We did learn a lot, them and us, all different things. As a team, and each of us too. Even those listening to me speaking about it in too much detail, because it was too near me, were bored, I did not succeed to make the report into a fascinating story. With distance, I will try. Next time.

The other tree, above my head is the meeting that will be held in February and I will organize with a team and many online clubs. This time, with more storytellers from online, inverse then was last. Also longer time given : a good story takes time and absorbs, time seems to fly. It is no more "inside a project" or at least not this project, this path. Inside or outside Toastmasters? Well it will be between online clubs that extend to the globe, and as we hope, it will just set a trend we continue.

Leadership Development will probably be the shortest path for me, but it is the more joyful one! Will I Reflect on the Path till end December or January does not matter: I will take my time and decide where to speak about it. My first story from the path was delivered in Normandy in a garden, the 1 September. Here is a photo of that telling taken by my son, in my Google + profile.

I begun, as Paul telling stories about stories, and then about the importance of the storytelling in our life. That first one was about our Great great mother, here 57 of her descendants were present in that France farm garden. The next "tell any story of any style" from the second project, was about how my father's story about his professional beginning influenced me thirty years later. 

During the project, which finally I chose not after the title but the required projects, and it was wonderful for my goal, I did a lot of wonderful things that will tell in another post, or probably you already read about in previous posts. My blog, now not only arrived to over 25000 hits, visits, but more and more tell me ; your blog post helped me, opened my eyes. Today, after the meeting I was asked advice from Olandele in Nigeria, "how can I begin Pathways faster"? Yesterday, Svetlana joined also a Pathways toastmasters club. I am so happy when I can inspire by my experience, stories, advices! 

We had a funny and interesting story from Krishn this morning at our online meeting: how not to make New Year Resolutions that fail, and how to make. What to wish and what we desire. After the meeting, as a good host, I asked all who come one after other about their future goals. So diverse! 

As to me? I hope to continue my Vision from the Visionary Communication I finished in September and that I never stopped working on it, bring more and more Toastmasters to Pathways, in many different ways. For next year, it will be by preparing my Districts Rollout and making it as successful as I can. At the same time, continuing the Storytelling movement, and as it is in Paul's picture, combining it more and more with the Pathways. Telling Pathways Stories. 

Tell us yours!