Oscar Savarino

A dream !

I have a dream ! I’ll become one of the best motivational speaker in the uk within two years. For some is one of those dreams but for me is a fact. You may ask..”What is it Oscar that makes you think that your dream is going to become reality ? Unless you have concrete solid evidence no one is going to believe that.” And I would say to you…”number one you can dream and not only when you are asleep and a dream is what you want…and number two your dream can become reality as long as you believe in yourself. What does it mean? Blieve in yourself means evaluating yourself under any circumstances. Costantly evaluating yourself.

Will any speaking club make me become the perfect speaker? Absolutely not, but what will is the interaction and the connection i am going to have with every single one of you, that will develop my skill. You see every one of you is like a piece of a puzzle, the only thing I have to do is to put the pieces together to have a picture. Every one of you holds a keyword , a sentence , a phrase that at some point , in any casual conversation you are going to tell me, like it or not! That sentence , that phrase, that keyword is going to trigger something in my mind that will take me to another level in order to reach my goal. You may say …”Hey , we’d better shut up then!”

What I am suggesting is that the way you learn how to succeed can come from any source. It could be a book, a friend, the internet and any other form of communication and when it happens then is when you have to apply the only rule you are going to need to know about. There is only that chance because you don’t know when the next moment is going to happen. A moment is like a test, you take it once. From moments are born opportunities, seize that moment. A moment is like a crossroad, where everithing you want will collide with everything standing in your way and the only difference between making history and being history , the only thing….the only thing you can count on any given moment is you!

I found that the biggest challenge you have to deal with in life is yourself and there is an old african proverb that says “If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm”. So you want to start trusting yourself, you want to start believing in yourself because you know that deep down your dream can become reality and you can leave your dream. And I am thinking of a woman that had the courage to appear in one of those tv shows although she was 47 and unemployed. I am talking about Susan Boyle. It took her 6 minutes of her life to become an international star. 6 minutes ladies and gentlemen to walk the path of success. The amazing thing about this woman is that every dream she had became reality, even singing for the pope. Do you remember when she said that? People were laughing. Did she do it? Yes she did it on the 16 of September 2010. So what is it that drives her? Two things….Passion and faith things that we already have. So the real question is “Do you really want to win? Are you ready to commit yourself and everything you have in order to reach your goal? Are you ready to challenge yourself and say Yes to your dreams?”

I am telling you one thing ladies and gentlemen and that is that things are going to happen to you so you’d better be prepared for the ride of your life. Be prepared mentally, physically and spiritually because life is like a rollercoaster. Sometime you go up and sometime you go down, sometime things go well and sometime things don’t go well. The clock is ticking……what are you going to do? Beyonce , the singer said once….”I always challenge myself by doing things I have never done before because is the only way for me to improve! and I say to you ladies and gentlemen “Always challenge yourself because is the only way for you to know that you are going somewhere ! So …get up and keep going!

The right Moment.

Something extraordinary is coming and is on its way to somewhere. That is the way I ended my last blog.

It is like an imaginary train that comes to your station and it is ready to take you somewhere important, somewhere special. You may ask. “When is the right time to jump on that train, the right moment?”.

Years ago a group of scientists tried to find out the right moment in which they could distinguish a tadpole from a frog. Now , if you consider the extreme opposites of a frog’s life you can easily recognise the two stages but they wanted to discover the right moment , during its life, where they could clearly see the two different stages next to each other. So they started taking million of pictures during the entire life and they put those picture on a wall. They examined  them  one by one and at the end of the day they came out with a statement saying that that wasn’t such a moment because the morfological changes in the body would happen constantly without rest.

It is the same when we consider the present in between past and future. The present doesn’t really exist because is the constant collision between the future and the past which means the future changes into past so quickly that would be impossible to determine the exact moment where the present occurs. For example what ever you have said or done in the past is automatically gone but whatever you are planning to say or do belongs to the future until you actually say or do things. The question is …..Are we going toward the future or is the future coming toward us.

Very often people wonder what the future “will bring” to us. Think about that ! The thing is that it is very easy to predict our future especially if we have an idea. The only thing you have to do is to throw that idea into the future and get prepared because “the train is coming with your idea and it is ready to take you with it!”

I have read something that said ” There might be non such thing as the perfect job, the perfect family or the perfect life but for sure there is such thing as the perfect moment” and she carries on saying ” Doing one crazy thing it does make you crazy but at the same time it makes you happy”. so that is the answer to our quest, “When is the right moment?” It is when you recognise within yourself that whatever you do is going to make you happy!   

A rain of ideas!

Hello everyone and welcome back. It is nice to see you here again. The other day I took my note book and I wrote a couple of ideas that came in my mind more or less at the same time and I’d like to share them with you because let’s say…I am a nice guy!

Listen to this : “I need to know that something extraordinary is possible!” The other thought (that I call idea) is “Everything is on its way to somewhere …” Now if you look at these ideas separately you could actually consider them different  with no problem at all. My problem was to find out why these two ideas came at the same time. 

Let’s examine the first one. ” I need to know that something extraordinary is possible!” We have something extraordinary that could be a particular event and we know that life is made of events that follow one another randomly, without a precise scheme . These events are not separate by space or time but they are connected or in better words they collide and every time they collide they create what I call moments from which opportunities are born. The opportunity to declare your indipendence, your love, your passion, dedication, commitments, your faith , your will to succeed ect.

Now on the other side we have “Everything is on its way to somewhere …” and by everything we always think of material objects like a chair a window a tree , human being or an iron bar that accordingly to the idea are on their way to somewhere like the tree rots , we get older and the iron bar rusts. Then I thought ….what if I include in everything the word event and like magic a much bigger idea formed in my mind.

“Something extraordinary is on its way to somewhere and it is ready to take you with it!”

Simply beautiful !

Don’t you know?

Speaking in front of an audience is something I enjoy very much and it is rewarding especially if , at the end, both parties get something positive out of it. Doing a speech just for the sake of it wouldn’t be worth it. It would be just a waste of time. That’s all. We need to make sure that results are achieved , whatever the goal , the idea , the project, the dream we have, even an impossible one. Everything is possible. Think about all the things that mankind has managed to achieve during centuries …do you think is not possible to replicate them? Start from that or you could start from little ones. Example…. for many people writing a book is considered an impossible task and that is because it is easier to say  “that is not my thing!” then actually try and do it. Suppose you were born to be a writer ( by the way a believe every one of us has a purpose in life and a specific identity.) wouldn’t be a shame not to put that talent at work ? By saying that “it is not your thing” you don’t do anything else then stopping expanding,  stretching and  forcing yourself to operate below your real potential and ultimately denying the chance to show to the world who you really are .

I believe that all of us have something to do in here and it’s not just what we usually do in our day to day life but it is something greater than that, something meaningful for the entire humanity. The way we operate is  a manifestation of what we believe is possible for us and what we deserve to have. But let’s try to go over the boundaries society has erected  since we were born. The first thing you would see is the rest of the world in other terms the rest of the possibilities that you could experience. Believing only in what we do is not enough , is not all. Ask yourself  questions like….Do you know what you are capable of apart from suing your neighbour for an overgrowing hedge? Have you ever experienced freedom? Have you ever done something to be remembered by? Do you have the power to change your story and make history? Do you think you could make better choices if you only had the chance? Most of the times people answer to these questions simply by saying “I don’t know”. Does the answer gives you a clue of your own limitations?  Not knowing is one thing , not wanting to know is another .

Knowing but not doing is the equivalent of not knowing.

Aristotle

Live your life like it’s your last !

A saying we’ve all heard before, but few of us have actually given it any thought. Living each day like it’s your last:

- Forces you to think about your priorities.
- It forces you to quit the things that waste your time and energy and to concentrate on the most important things and people in your life.
- If you live that way you make better choices, you treasure each moment and suck the life out of every hour.
- It removes the clutter and garbage that so often chokes our lives.

Living each day like it’s your last is not about living in gloom and fear of death. Rather it is about:

- Grabbing every opportunity.
- Not procrastinating.
- Doing today what you could put off till tomorrow.
- Reaching out to your dreams today.
- Not letting another moment pass you by.
- Living life to the full.

It’s living your life so that when your time comes to go, someone will care and someone will say their life is different and their life is better…because YOU were there.

Take that chance!

 Hi everyone. It is always a pleasure to come back here and talk about the possibility that everyone has to shine in any occasion. Recently I have been asked to give a speech in one of the toastmaster club’s contest . The Humorous speech contest!! I must say that it has been a big challenge for me for two reasons. First I have never done it before and second  I had to act as a comedian for  seven minutes and the thing is …..well I am not a comedian! You see life knocks on your door giving you not problems but challenges that you must consider as opportunity to learn and grow and that is what is all about. So I have challenged myself in trying to deliver a speech as humorous and funny as possible and it took me several weeks to finish the script by adding details or facts or jokes. You basically have to take life as it is and then  find and extract the funny side of it. Not an easy task when you are constantly bombarded by terrible news on TV or surrounded by people that want  to keep you where you are. So I have focused entirely on the task , visualised myself as a comedian in front of an audience and rehearsed the speech several times. There is only one question….What if they (audience) don’t even giggle? What if they start thinking you are a looser , that you are not funny at all and they all look at you with a blank expression that says “Is that it?, Is that all you have got?”. Remember that the negative thoughts will never disappear , it is up to us to keep them at bay but as soon as we have the slightest doubt they will come out and shout in your head “YOU CAN’T DO IT!” So I kept being positive all throughout the process and the result has been amazing. I ran ways into overtime (let’s say I was enjoying myself !) so I lost the chance of being considered even as runner up but the feedback received afterward by the public was absolutely fantastic.

Did I loose ? I don’t think so! I have just postponed an even greater victory!

Are you confident enough?

What is confidence? Confidence is the ability to show who you really are in any situation. Sometimes we find ourselves struggling to find that confidence necessary to succeed in life. Confidence is a kind of quality that every single human being has and yet most people  fail to bring it up when necessary. Unfortunately society doesn’t help you creating chances to put yourself on the spot. There is always someone else ready to step up and let you feel useless. Now days we are surrounded  by advisers , counsellors  and other professional figures that are ready to intervene and solve you the problem which means they make experience and become more and more confident about themselves and you by doing less and less, end up not making any progress in order to acquire a certain degree of authority. They make the rules and you have to follow them and if you try to rise your voice in order to be heard , someone else will pop up from nowhere ready to shut you up. So what do we do?  Let’s start from the bottom by asking yourself who you are , where you want to go and how you are going to get there. Look at the life you are living and ask yourself whether you like or not. By answering this question you start your journey towards your future. By answering this question you put yourself in the situation to focus on whatever problem you have and  start making simple decisions in order to fix the problem. By making a decision you step towards changing your behaviour , your thoughts ,your body language , how you speak  and what you say which in turn means increasing your self confidence and ultimately your self esteem.

Practice makes improvements.

The other night I have made a speech at Toastmaster on the importance of getting confidence by just standing in front of an audience without a prepared speech. My speech was called ” Listen to this…..I am speechless”.

Here is the written version.

Mr President , Toastmaster , ladies and gentlemen……To be honest I don’t have a speech. I just decided to come here to see how it feels to be in front of an audience. You may say “well if you don’t have a speech why don’t you step aside and let someone else have a go?” You see the question is….what is the purpose of this (Toastmaster)? Is it to become a speaker , or a better speaker or simply to acquire that confidence that will allow you to become a speaker. You have 5,6,7 minutes during which you do something very important for yourself. You learn! I don’t have to have a prepared speech to become a competent comunicator . I just have to experience different situations and repeat them more frequently, as you say ” Practice makes what?……” Perfect? Absolutely not, perfection doesn’t exist you can only make improvements. Perfect is a word that has been invented and put into a dictionary…. like the word Freedom. It doesn’t mean anything. So I decided to practice to improve my confidence by just being here. Looking at you , smiling at you , getting used to this. You see one thing is to come here with a prepared speech and another is coming here.

When you make a prepared speech you  concentrate in delivery the speech word by word  but you don’t realise where you are but when you don’t have a prepared speech you start thinking about your posture , your gesture, eye contact etc. It’s another story. Now some of you wrote me notes about my previous performances and I agreed with all of you especially on the wandering around because it can be very distractive , but I discovered that if the odience finds you interesting for what you say or do , they will follow you anywhere you go because all of a sudden you become believable and people love to believe in something or in someone. I am a professional speaker and I have three web pages. About me .com, linkedin and tumblr.com where I write my blogs. You may say ” we thought you were a Landscaper” . Gardening and Landscaping is my current job but I am in the process of making a transition from my old life to my new life.

That is why I don’t have a prepared speech for tonight. It puts you in a different situation because you don’t have a script , materials, visual support or papers to look at….only your imagination and the positive side of it is that you can run wild with that especially if you know what you are talking about. So my job is to motivate people, to challenge them , to reinvent them, to let them discover new possibilities. How many people here need just a little bit of encouragement in order to cross that line and become more confident? Nowdays you need to be positive toward any project and that positive attitude comes firts of all from knowledge , however knowledge is not enough if you are not capable of delivering it with confidence. You can be a genius but terribly boring , enough to loose your audience . That’s why I am here without  a prepared speech. I need to do this in order to feel more confortable. Just walk up and down, looking at you, at where you are sitting at what you are wearing trying at the same time to keep you focus on what I say.

This is a kind of excercise for everyone because it gives you the opportunity to know yourself better and to ask yourself the question “Am I capable of doing it?” . Is good for the guests too , just come here … standing here and talking freely. No speeches of any kind , no pressure. 

Now this is the speech n 3 called “Get to the point” and I am pretty sure I have managed to make one. Thank you.  

Are you a leader?

Recently someone asked me about leadership. The question was “ Do leaders are born leaders or they become leaders?” I answered the question saying that in my opinion people become leaders over a certain period of time during which they learn how to take decision for themselves and for the others.

Can we all become leaders? Yes it is a matter of starting making decision in order to control life and avoid being controlled. Obviously the sooner you learn the better is because not only you’ll get into the habit of making them  on a regular basis but you also learn how to judge good decisions and bad ones depending on circumstances.

Life can change at any time and it does every time you make a decision and changing means learning, acquiring knowledge that will allow you to step onto another path. For example you can choose to stay home or go out. Two different paths that will lead you in two different directions . Remember that life is unpredictable and it is always ready to throw any kind of event at you , facts,     informations  even if you don’t move a finger . At that point it’s all up to you. It’s in your hand.

What are you going to do? Sit down or do something about it? So leadership is about taking decision regarding your life first of all and the sooner you make the step the easier is going to be in the future. Why ? Because you make  life experience and once you start collecting experience your “know how” begins to grow and your life will definitely assume the shape you want!  

Do you want to lead? Lead yourself and your life and the others will follow you!