Toastmasters Speech No. 4: "Living the Moment"

1 year, 24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86400 seconds – this is how we measure the time of our lives. Depends on how you look at it.

Most people say that life flies too quickly. Before you knew it, a new president was elected. A new cellphone was released to the market. Prices of gasoline tripled. You can’t see your age in the calendar anymore.

For all we know, we hardly notice how time flies for the reason that we tend to reside in the past to relive the special moments of our lives. And I mean moment with a capital “M.” These moments can be a memory, life altering events or conversations. Your first day at school. Your first kiss that remained in your lips for some time. Your first awkward encounter with the opposite sex. The time you had a fist fight. The time when you had an accident. The time you almost died. The list goes on and on.
And, these moments conjures feelings of the past. It makes you happy. It makes you sad. It sends you to a rollercoaster of emotions. But one thing’s for certain-you relieve these moments on and on as if it was forever.

Almost always it is coupled with deep longing thoughts of “shoulda-woulda-coulda” - what could have happened if I lived my life differently? Perhaps, I should have done it this way… Or that? What if I didn’t broke up with her? What if I chose a different career? What if?

And, yes, I know. It nags you to the core. But, these thoughts make you think and let you learn things only experience can provide. Come to think of it - most of our decisions, values and even prejudices came from our past experiences.

As we go on living our lives, we hardly notice how time flies. How short our lives are becoming. How more and more things are left undone. Our sense of time is distorted into a playback and rewind of events, people and situations. Before we knew it, we are living in the past.

Our fear of letting go, holds us back from new experiences. Silly as it may seem, we hold these moments tightly because they are special and meaningful. But, they hinder us from learning new things or starting a new chapter of our lives.

Fellow toastmasters and guests, don’t get me wrong. These special moments have its purpose and served you well. It would be wasteful to continue to relive our past at the expense of the present.

Think of it. Here’s an example: We fill up our rooms with things that remind us of our past for the fear that we will lose a part of ourselves when take them a way. Love letters, rusted trophies, useless books, and the first tooth that came off your mouth. Who is guilty? I am.

If you look at it on the hindsight, we only have to look at the mirror and see. We are… our past. We don’t need things to remind us of who we were, who we are and who we are to become.

So, let us cast them aside to provide space in our heart or in our rooms for new things and experiences. Let us ask ourselves: When was the last time we I did something for the first time? Tried something I thought I’d never do? Let’s act on these questions.

There is still so much left undone and new experiences to create. We still have plenty of 1 year, 24 hours, 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds left to spare and I suggest we use it as much as we can.