Only a day to go before the biggest ever gathering of OTs in the UK will take place in Harrogate and I’m really excited to be part of it. Last week I wrote a post about asking ourselves, ‘who do we want to be‘ at conference, rather than what do we want to do. Today a post along similar lines and the graphic from Gaping Art Void seems really fitting for this post.
You may remember that a few weeks ago I wrote a review of Tara Mohr’s book, Playing Big which focuses on supporting women to bring their full potential into the world. If you check out her website you can download her 10 Rules for Brilliant Women which is a workbook which acts as an introduction to her work and here is rule 3:
Start doing things that make you gasp and get the adrenaline flowing. Ask yourself, “What’s the gasp-level action here?” Your fears and a tough inner critic will chatter in your head. That’s normal, and just fine.
When you hear that repetitive, irrational, mean inner critic, name it for what it is, and remember, it’s just a fearful liar, trying to protect you from any real or seeming risks. Go for the gasps and learn how false your inner critic’s narrative really is, and how conquerable your fears.
Whilst acknowledging that, whenever we think big, many of us will have an inner critic whispering in our ears this rule is a call to stretch ourselves into a new more courageous space. So here is my question –
If you are attending any conference over the coming weeks what will be your conference gasp?
Maybe you are one of the people presenting for the first time and your gasp will be giving your presentation. But if you’re not what is something that you can commit to that will stretch you out of playing safe and staying in your comfort zone? It doesn’t have to be a big, massive change the world stretch, although brilliant if it is, but something which moves you from spending three days staying in your comfort zone.
It might be standing up, taking the microphone and asking a question, it might be approaching an ‘expert’ in your field and asking them a question or it might be signing up to twitter and sending out your first tweet into the twitter sphere. Whatever it is, it will be something that, when you think about it, makes your heart beat faster or you feel butterflies in your stomach.
There are many opportunities to do things that make us gasp at a conference and the one thing to know for sure, for those of you attending the COT conference this week, is that you are amongst colleagues, within your heartland where people will be cheering you on.
So acknowledge those jitters, see them for what they are – a sign that you are stretching and growing and go for your very own conference gasp or two, or three……….