Sri Lankaka Club Symposium - Bahrain Toastmaster Magazine Vol 07 | Page 11

Speech # 2 Contd …...
This incident made a small quotation in my mind which I am going to share with you publically for the first time although I have shared with my close friends. It goes like this; “Everyone makes statements or decisions as per their background and knowledge they possess. Therefore it does not necessarily mean all of them are true or correct in reality” By: Saman Karunaratne. We often criticize others for their mistakes. Sometimes these can be very minor incidents. But we are always ready to blow these situations out of proportion. My fellow toastmasters, the next time when you realize that you are involved in criticizing somebody I want you to think about your qualification to do so. I want you to think how qualified you are to criticize someone. I believe we will only qualify to criticize somebody if we do not have any fault in us. To date I have not found any of my friends or colleagues including myself who qualifies for this criteria. Remember it is very is easy to become angry or egoistic. Let us look into this small example I read in a book. Just imagine on your way back home some unknown person is trying to start quarrel with you and both of you are just about to get physical. Onlookers get in between both of you and stop the fight and you return home with so much anger to find who the fellow was. Probably some of you may think tomorrow to go with some of your friends to teach him a lesson. Now just think, after one hour you receive a call from a friend of yours and he tells you that the fellow who was trying to start a fight with you is an escapee from a mental hospital. Now see the change. Suddenly your anger will diminish and you are no longer in a state of mind for revenge. But what calmed you down? It is nothing but your own thoughts. So next time when someone unnecessarily hurts you, you know what to think. Remember this simple fact. Many things in this world cannot be controlled by us. This is true to our own selves, family members, friends and colleagues, etc. One of the few things we can control is our own thoughts which may become ‘words’ and then may become ‘actions’. If your thoughts today have not created unwarranted stress to someone, then you have completed another successful day. Try doing this. From today onwards before you go to sleep, summarize your actions in five minutes for the day elapsed. Try to do this impartially. See whether you have caused unwarranted pain to anyone. See what you would have done differently to ease a situation. If you adopt it you will find that the environment around you will become more peaceful day by day and you, yourself will realize that,

‘Life is Beautiful’
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