Fellow Toastmasters, Honored guests, and fellow humans. As the title of this speech suggests, it is part of the human condition to fall short on occasion, to miss the mark. Why is that? I think most people are good at heart and want to do the right thing. What happens? We have a moment of weakness, a lapse of judgment, or a lack of discipline perhaps. It has been observed that there are common tendencies in humans which tend to contribute to our failures, and which the church has kindly catalogued for us. These are the Seven deadly sins, which are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. As an aside, I think that taking a group of human proclivities and turning them into sins was a brilliant bit of marketing on the part of the church. It certainly turned out to be good for business. Some may think, myself included, that the word “sin” might be a bit strong for describing these human foibles but it is also a good provocative word so we will go with it. What if there was a way, you could take these sins or stumbling blocks and make them work for you instead of against you? What would that look like?
Lets look at gluttony. Most people have overeaten on occasion and many people struggle with it daily. Did you know it has been estimated that about 40% of the people in this country are obese and another 32% are considered overweight? I can’t help but think that when we consistently overindulge in food, that there is a deep, underlying dissatisfaction behind it, which the food ever quite fulfils. What if we could direct that hunger within us to something that would lead to true satisfaction? What if we hungered after our goals and dreams instead? As Les Brown says, you gotta be hungry to succeed.
It has been said that pride comes before a fall, and it is true that arrogant pride can cause us to overestimate our abilities and make fools of ourselves. But that same pride can be a catalyst for change. It can make us fed up with ourselves. It can push us to say “ I’m tired of being broke”. “I’m tired of being overweight”. I’m tired of not living up to my potential”. Pride can also build us up when we are down.
Let’s talk about Envy. I’m not sure this one should even be on the list. Envy is one of the main reasons for the success of capitalism. It may be true that envy can cause us to be jealous or bitter over the success of another who has more than you do or has nicer things. Get over it. There is always someone who will have more than you do. Try to be happy for that person, instead. Use it to inspire you to become successful so that you may be able to afford such things. Use that envy to give you the courage to go up to that person and offer to buy them lunch in exchange for the opportunity to pick their brain and learn how to do what they did.
Greed. In the movie Wall Street, the so called villain Gordon Gecko famously said “greed is good”. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with accumulating wealth, but I believe it is important to do so ethically. If you have a business, pay your employees a fair wage. Be honest in your business dealings. Greed is also responsible for the mentality that you can get something for nothing and hence various get rich quick schemes. You can’t. You need to do the work, and a little greed can motivate you to do what is necessary to succeed.
We all have situations or people in our lives that push our buttons which summons from within us anger. And often, if we hold it in, we end up loosing our wrath on the people who deserve it least, like our loved ones. It is important not to let our emotions get the better of us, especially anger, which can be very destructive. We need to find an outlet for this energy. Exercise can be a good way to let off steam. You can use anger as motivation to fight for some cause. Or, that anger can be directed toward constructively rectifying the situations that are causing you unneeded stress.
We all need to take a break some time. Even God took a day off. If you spend your downtime sitting on the couch eating chips and watching TV, you are letting your sloth run you. Make the most of your downtime. Do something that will rejuvenate you. Go for a walk. Take up a hobby. Read a book. Or if you are still hell bent on sitting on your butt in front of a big screen, go to the movie theater and do it, and treat your family to some stale popcorn and overpriced drinks.
And lastly, we come to lust and I promise I will keep it PG rated. I think that intimacy between two consenting, adult human beings where there is mutual satisfaction, is a good thing. But you can have too much of a good thing. An excess of lust can lead one to stray from your partner or pursue short lived encounters which do not lead to true satisfaction. Instead, what if that obsession could be turned into a lust for life. A desire to get the most out of every all too short minute we have on this planet. Think of what we could accomplish.
As you may have gleaned from this speech, one way we might look at these sins or traps that humans commonly fall into, is simply a misdirection of our energy, and if we become more mindful, we can redirect this energy to our advantage, and the Seven Deadly Sins, become instead, seven opportunities for growth. The choice is yours. Mr. Toastmaster.