Personal Development Words of Wisdom

I recently attended a local Association for Women in Communications event. (Organized by my thoughtful and dedicated friend, Victoria.) It was such a luxury to commit to a full day to my own personal development and be in community (IRL!) with women.

Bonus: because it was local, I still got to nurse baby girl halfway through the day, which is really important to me!

An all-day event is a bit of a marathon. Especially because in-person, you not only have to be “on” mentally, you also have to look engaged with your face and posture and all the things. [Don’t deny that on Zoom it’s so much easier to check email, text, multi-task, or otherwise daydream…]

But it was worth the effort because I got lots of little nuggets of wisdom that I can now share with you!

1️⃣ RECONNECTING WITH CONFIDENCE: FINDING YOUR KEY LIGHT – Jenette Jurczyk

Jenette gave the example of that “story of my life” cliché to show how important perspective is in shaping reality.

Most of us say “story of my life” when something bad happens. You hit all red lights on the way to an appointment, Zoom crashes right before the workshop you’re hosting, the store closes just as you pull up.

She suggested that if we only focus on the negative, it becomes the story of our life.

Whereas, what if we reframed our story around positivity and possibility? What would the story of our life be then?

2️⃣ RECONNECTING WITH WORK: A RESILIENT WAY FORWARD – Monica Bullington

My friend and client Monica gave a vulnerable and moving keynote talk about the resilience she’s built over the years. Even though I haven’t been through all the struggles she has, she made her tough experiences relatable and even funny at times! A few of my biggest takeaways from her talk:

✧ So often, we run away from the things we’re afraid of, rather than toward the things we want. This one cut deep for me.

I was reminded of a visualization exercise I did recently around desires and I couldn’t picture what I wanted. Talk about a big red flag. How can I make it happen if I don’t know what I’m working toward?

This talk was a needed reminder to focus on what I want to intentionally build and have for myself and my legacy.

✧ She also said you can’t connect with perfection. This has been one of the most liberating lessons I’ve learned in entrepreneurship and womanhood in general.

I was that girl growing up that everyone said was “perfect” and it always rubbed me the wrong way. And always made me feel like I needed to live up to some imaginary—and obviously unattainable—standard.

The more I lean into imperfect action, the more I feel in integrity.

3️⃣ RECONNECTING WITH EACH OTHER: BUILD YOUR SOCIAL BOOKSHELF – Whitney Chesher

Whitney was one of my first friends I met when I moved here almost 5 years ago. She and I had really similar jobs and would always end up at the same community events.

In her talk, she said, “How you choose to spend your time and who you spend it with defines your life.” Mic drop.

If this isn’t true, I don’t know what is.

4️⃣ RECONNECTING WITH HUMOR: USING HUMOR TO HEAL, CONNECT, & CREATE – Dr. Jennifer Keith

Humor specialist Jennifer used a MadLibs exercise to lay out all the incredible biological benefits of laughing. One stat that jumped out at me is that we’re 30x more likely to laugh in a social setting than alone.

I definitely chuckle to myself when watching something funny, but it’s true—I’m a lot more likely to laugh out loud when I’m around people. Yet another reason community is important!

5️⃣ RECONNECTING WITH YOURSELF: CONNECTING YOUR BODY WITH YOUR MIND – MaKenzie Costley

MaKenzie focused on values, so of course her talk really resonated with me.

She walked us through a reflection exercise where we noted what we spend the most:

• time doing
• money on
• time thinking about
• time talking about