The 2 Balls of Happiness

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Here's my P2 speech for Toastmasters.

Title: The 2 Balls of Happiness

I was talking to my nephew the other day, and i asked him, "what do you want to be when you grow up?"
He said, "i want to be co-pilot."
Kind of strange that he wants to be co-pilot and not pilot.
Anyway he asked me in return, "what do YOU want to be when YOU grow up?"
"Well, when i GROW up,", I told him, "I want to be happy."

Kids being kids, they don't know when to stop asking questions, and he asked again "How ah? How to be Happy?"

Toastmaster of the evening, fellow toastmasters, ladies and gentleman,
how to be happy? what a difficult and profound question. I don't claim to know the answer, but i would like to share with you this evening, two qualities which i find to be very important to a happy life.

The first quality, the first BALL of happiness, is the ball of faith.
Juggling has taught me a lot abt faith. Learning to juggle 5 balls took me a year. I'm trying to learn 5 clubs now. It's been 3 years and i'm still learning.

Let me show you what it means to learn 5 clubs.
it means standing here, holding 5 clubs, then throw throw throw throw throw,
then drop drop drop drop drop,
then pick up pick up pick up pick up pick up.

then throw throw throw throw throw,
then drop drop drop drop drop,
then pick up pick up pick up pick up pick up.

for THREE years! that's all i did! And of course there were times when you throw the clubs aside and swear never to juggle again, but you come back.
Because somewhere at the back of my head, I had faith. I told myself if i had to drop 1 million times to get 5 clubs, then if i had dropped 500 times today, it means i'm 500 steps closer to my goal.

how many of us apply that to real life problems? maybe the try after 9 failures is the try that will succeed. Have faith. Don't worry abt it, have faith.

The next ball of happpiness, is the ball of love.
And not just love for the pple around you, but love for the things that you did.

and again i have a juggling story to share.

there was once i did a 3 min show for my company.
they're not paying me for it, it's just a guest show.
I was working full time, so i could only rehearse at night after work.

For the whole week before the show i was practicing late everyday,
and sleeping a couple hours everyday.

i remember on one of those nights.
at 4 am, i was sitting on the bed, balls in hand, wondering why i was doing all this for.

it's a 3 min show which no one will care anymore after, and i wasn't getting paid. i wasn't getting anything at all!
and then i realised, if it wasn't for anything, then it was for the love of it.

and i was very comforted by that.
because how many times do we find something we love doing.

Ladies and gentlemen,
sometimes when you have both balls of happiness,
magic happens.
you get rhythm, you get flow, you get smooth.
but sometimes you get out of balance, and one drops.
never mind, find it, pick it up, and get back into the rhythm.

So i challenge you tonight,
to look into your lives to see if you have both balls of happiness.
and if any is missing,
find it,
and may you live happily ever after.

God bless.

Toastmaster of the evening pls.
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