How I Won by Coming in Second

My current book on mastering stress is in edits and layout. It will be available in June, God willing. In it I talk about the stress of rejection which I got a taste of last weekend.

I was in the third level of a speech contest that had me inspired and revved up. My subject was a play on words around birds. It was a fantasy story or allegory regarding how life takes us on different paths to accomplish what is stranger than fiction, perhaps even a miracle.

I have never won anything like this before and I got this far by an interesting sequence of events.

At the first level, I was not as familiar with my material and characteristic to my nature, I had way too much information. My presentation was almost a race in verbal diarrhea. It was funny though. People laughed a lot and it was memorable because people are still commenting on it. I actually came in second place. I was pleased with my delivery, however, as usual there is always room for improvement.

The second level was five days away. To my surprise, the first place contender had a scheduling conflict, so I got to take his place. That was prophetic in my mind. To top it off, I was offered a mentoring session to help me for the Saturday contest. I also had already scheduled a coaching session with my speech coach the following day. That session was scheduled way before I even decided to enter the contest.

How convenient. Does God’s timing work or what?

For the second level contest, I changed a few words around, cut some of the content and had a lot of fun with it. I came in first on my own for that contest, although I was questioned on the content. Apparently my poem sounded as though someone else had written it. This was a compliment to me, however, I had to verify originality.

The picture below is from the third level. I was so excited about this opportunity because now my speech had been mentored several times and I had had plenty of time to practice all of my 746 words. At the contest, I went first. This was not a good sign in my mind. My presentation was distinctly different from the four other contestants. My story was funny, with wit and preposterous situations. The other speeches were very deep and emotionally charged examples of life changing events.

That is when I came in second place and it stuck.

I learned a lot through this process and the experience was motivating. I discovered that indeed, my speech could have done better if I had chosen to write a story that demonstrated overcoming one of life’s challenges.

I was told later that the four “D’s” would be a great start; Death, Disease, Divorce or Debt. These can be tragic defining moments in one’s life and can demonstrate an act of faith that sees you through. I did not do that.

However, I believe all of those four areas can be better managed by a little light-hearted humor. Like the birds I was showcasing, “angels fly because they take themselves lightly.”