This past week, I was grateful for the opportunity to be asked to be the keynote speaker as a former member of my Toastmaster club. The topic was extremely important — I would have the undivided attention of the club for 10 minutes — so I landed on the 5 x 5 rule by James Altucher. I have spoken about the 5 x 5 rule before but it is this:
- You are the average of the 5 people that you associate with the most
- You are the average of the 5 habits that you do the most
- You are the average of the 5 foods that you eat the most
- You are the average of the 5 ideas that you think about the most
- You are the average of the 5 information sources that you consume the most
I decided to share these rules and to drop in parts of my life when I had first moved to where I am today, 10 years ago.
The point is this — as I was practicing, I wanted to make sure that my message and the topic resonated as much as possible with the audience. Here are the things that helped make my speech a success with the audience:
Communicate with the intent to help
Today, I was at the sauna and I watched an older gentleman helping an older lady with some paddles in the water. The old lady only spoke…
