(Speech)
“First you practice, and then you preach”. This is one of the most misused statement in the entire history of humanity.
Fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests, good evening.
Even when I am opposing this adage, I agree that this principle is applicable to the practice of existing laws. Like we cannot go and ask everyone to pay tax without ourselves paying the tax. But the concept that we ought to understand is that the principle of “First you practice, and then you preach” is applicable only to such existing laws. Nevertheless we extend it to all walks of life as a suppressing tool.If we don’t extend the usage to any other areas I see two immediate advantages: 1) It will help idea evolution 2) It can aid people to improve.
Attacking an established age old adage is not easy. My first contention is: on restricting its usage we will help idea evolution. Lets consider this.In my company, lunch is provided free of cost. But now as you know, because of the economic crisis, the company is inviting ideas from employees for cost cutting. My suggestion was to charge for the lunch. One of my colleagues who particularly likes the lunch didn’t like the idea. He said, “First you practice what you preach; pay for your lunch”. I was shell shocked. One must understand that I am ready to pay for the lunch when the company introduces it as a policy. If we are adamant on rebuking by the practice first principle, people will not dare to throw up new ideas .To appreciate better,imagine we have formed an idea totally against coco-cola. We are preaching never to have it. Now, we are in a hot desert with no water but coco-cola. What would we do? If somebody drinks coco-cola in that situation lets not question their integrity saying he doesn’t practice what he preach. Let’s not get that tough on life; let’s not get that tough on people; let’s not get that tough on ideas.
My second contention is : if we restrict from using this adage it can help improve our performance. We at the toastmasters club are the living example for this. For instance, when a trembling table topics master urges the speakers to be confident, nobody jumps up from the audience and blurts out “Hey, why don’t you first feel confident and then advice us”. Toastmasters never do that. We just take the message in its spirit and try to improve ourselves. Interestingly when the message to be confident gets accepted by the benevolent toastmasters, it gives the table topics master a positive energy to subdue fear and he will gradually improve as he feel that it is his idea not to fear behind the lectern. See the advantage we have reaped for ourselves by restricting the use of practice first before preaching principle. Apart from this I had a personal experience of this sort. A friend of mine had advised me when I lost 1 paper during engineering. I wanted to retort to her “Hey you lost six papers and you are advising me”. But as I was down and out, I hadn’t had the energy for it and kept quite. Interestingly when the next semester’s result came she came and told me “Hey Jindow, I cleared all the papers. When I advised you that day and when you accepted despite I having lost six papers, it gave me the confidence and I myself really understood the need to study well”. I was so happy and also so thankful that on the day when she advised me, I kept my ever wagging tongue under control. I still carry that joy in my heart in the same measure though it reduced a little when she introduced another guy as her boyfriend.
Remember for those people who are preaching without practice, their mind is willing but their body doesn’t permit or their circumstances constrain them. And we speak continuously on the will of our mind our body and the rest of the circumstances will succumb. Lets us not be the ones to down trod, character assassinate and throw others out of their lives. Lets keep inviting ideas and lets keep improving.Over to you toastmaster!!
Watch the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOUxcmLT05E
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