Crystal Ball

I won the Brunei Speakers' Club International Speech Contest with my speech entitled "Crystal Ball" and it shared a little story about my weight loss. The next level is the Area Contest on 7 March where I will be competing against the members from the other Toastmasters Clubs in Brunei and normally the speakers would do the same speech but I think I'll be changing mine just to spice things up a bit.

Enjoy!

CRYSTAL BALL

When I was a child, I stumbled across this beautiful crystal ball. And believing in fairy tales and magic I asked this crystal ball, “Crystal ball, show me my future!”

Magically, the crystal ball showed me my life. One, I was slim and gorgeous. Two, I was filthy rich, living life like those in Hollywood! And the best part, I was married to the most handsome, most loving husband, any woman could ask for. I was the envy of all in the land of… my dreams!

Good evening contest chair, honourable judges, fellow Toastmasters and friends.

The crystal ball has absolutely been spot on. Only 1 out of the 3 things mentioned came true! Not bad. Where we now live in a time of economic recession and good men are becoming as scarce as oil, I would say I still did quite well.

Over the past few years, I have reflected what makes our life the way it is? Do we really need to seek the help of a crystal ball to see into our future? The truth is, you already know the answer. The magic is inside of you. You cannot and you do not rely on your crystal ball to tell you everything there is you need to know.

There are too many people who go through life waiting for things to happen. Or they wonder, what happened? Or those who actually make things happen. And that is you and I. We make things happen… when we choose to.

Growing up, my crystal ball began to predict a glum outlook of my life. It was telling me that I will always be fat and overweight. I began to find comfort in acknowledging this future predicted by my crystal ball. I over enjoyed and I overindulged in my eating habits. All social events were used for good company and an excuse to “celebrate” life! The adage of I live to eat, was somehow the only truth I knew. And exercise existed although it was limited to walking up the stairs from the car park to the office. I was truly living the life predicted by my crystal ball. I was meant to be overweight.

Then it came to a point in time where wake up calls happen and shattered the crystal ball into tiny pieces. Mine came at a point where I felt unwell and feverish. I visited the doctor and he took my blood pressure. His eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw the reading. I at the age of 30 years old was on the brink of being diagnosed with high blood pressure. In simple terms, I am in BIG trouble if I didn’t do anything especially someone of my size. Being overweight was already a problem. But being overweight and having high blood pressure can be life threatening. I did not expect this at all. My crystal ball didn’t warn me beforehand.

It was time to take action and mean it! I recreated a new crystal ball that projected an image of me slimmer, healthier and happier. I held this thought in my mind’s eye as I begun the process. It was not an easy journey and we must not get deceived that everything that we do will be challenge-free.

Throughout this weight loss program, I met many people who just don’t seem to understand or they make like they are weight loss experts even though they have not lost any weight themselves. Cutting back on my food intake was not a problem. And re-educating myself about healthy food was not the issue either. I can be pretty disciplined when I choose to. The little comments that people make frustrate me. Just the other day, at a dinner party, I had fruit instead of cake and ice cream and one of my friends said to me upfront, “Is that all you’re having? So boring.” When he was well aware I was on an eating plan.

And another time, a friend I was having dinner with, said to me, “Go on have some it won’t hurt.” When it fact it would.

Another friend one time said to me, “Rozana, are you sure that’s your portion. No more for you!” And he took the food away from me! When in fact I didn’t have enough to eat.

At each moment, I wanted to cry because I had been doing my best to follow my eating plan and it was a choice that I had made for myself and they think they knew better than me. I didn’t take it personally. What doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger.

Whatever we choose to do, there will always be ups and downs. Fortunately for me, there were many downs. I saw the numbers on the weighing scale go down, down, down. And in 5 months, from 119kg, I became 89kg. That’s 30kg in 5 months along with a loss in total body measurement of over 50cm, it was unimaginable!

The walking result stands before you today. I made my own future. I created the life I was looking to lead. I took action. In the end, it was up to me to make it happen. I didn’t need a crystal ball to tell me what I can be, do or have in life. All I needed was a strong intention that was driven purely from the heart.

What about you? Will you be the one who will go through life waiting for things to happen or even wonder what happened? Or will you be the one who chooses to make things happen? You don’t need a crystal ball. The magic comes from within you. It comes from following your heart to manifest your dreams and desires. As Helen Keller said, "Beautiful things are not only seen by the eyes, but is also felt by the heart." So long as we carry our hearts with us and take action, we will never ever need a crystal ball.