Toastmasters can inspire a leap of faith.

A year and a half ago I joined Toastmasters. I quickly jumped into writing speeches and participating in table topics. I realized that I was speaking a lot about not enjoying my work. A friend of mine had a health issue and I knew I needed to change.

When you are working full time it is sometimes hard to make a change without feeling overwhelmed. During the course of gaining my CL I realized that over the last several years I had only been setting financial goals for myself. The CL showed me again that I needed to start working toward something bigger, and that I could only eat an elephant in small bites.

I formed a plan to start a home based business. In the format of the CL manual I started to list the steps required to make the change. I worked on a business plan, took out a business licence, created a website, printed business cards. I started to promote myself and before you know it I had a viable side business worked up. I worked on building a bit of a safety net and I was almost ready to jump.

All I needed now was some confidence. During my work for my CL and CC I had done some work that garnered more results than I expected. I realized that this business venture may be the same. That's all it took -- I became self employed.

Toastmasters provided me : a framework to work from, a peer group to bounce ideas off of, built in cheerleaders, coaches and mentors. Most importantly it allowed me believe in myself again.

I was inspired to take a leap of faith by being involved in Toastmasters. I know others will be as well.