Make the Most of Your Post-Conference Motivation
Source: ConvergenceCoaching, LLC Inspired Ideas
The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog entry by Michelle Baca.
What can you do to keep yourself from losing the motivation and momentum you gained while attending your conference, association meeting, or other training session?
Select two or three major actions or commitments at the most – As you attend your conference, maintain a running list of all of the things you “might” do. At the end of the conference, review your list and highlight the top two or three things that would make the biggest positive difference and set goals related to them.
Find someone to hold you accountable – Identify someone you can enlist to hold you accountable. Tell him or her your deadline for reaching your goal. Give him or her permission to check in with you if he or she hasn't heard from you by the deadline.
Schedule time in your calendar for conference follow-up activities – Do this before you leave for the conference and schedule your block or blocks of time as close to the end of the conference as possible.
Be prepared for the negativity that you may encounter when sharing your ideas – Being prepared for any type of reaction that is less than positive will help protect you from letting your ideas be squashed. Prepare for and even minimize this reaction by:
- Synthesizing your ideas into two or three commitments
- Identifying the positive result you will achieve
- Communicating the positive result and the benefit to the people you're sharing it with
Track possible future actions – Remember the list of things that didn't make it into your top two or three? Create a special file for these so that you can circle back to them once you have successfully completed your first goals.
For the complete article, read “Capitalizing on ‘Conference Pixie Dust.'”
From Convergence Coaching, LLC Inspired Ideas, http://blog.convergencecoaching.com, May 11, 2011.