Conference insights

My conference this past week was phenomenal and I can say that my cup of new knowledge/ideas runneth over - I'm just hoping that I was able to capture everything that I wanted to in my notes.  Not only did I learn things that I can implement into my work but I can also apply these thoughts into my life.  One of the guest speakers really resonated with me and it's stuff I've heard before but hearing it this last week has stuck with me (or it hopefully will once I go back to work).  Something that the guest speaker said that I really want to put into motion is finding a mentor that tells me not what I want to hear but what I need to hear (i.e. "what the hell are you doing working 60 hours a week - knock it off!").  He also talked about stress vs. burnout and this was something else that struck me - people who stress tend to be very passionate and feel things intensely (sound like me??) and being passionate can lead to burnout; burnout is where passionate people have given all they can (and then some) and that leads to feeling numb/no longer caring (hmmm... also sound like me??).

Another session I was in was a panel discussion with senior leaders and people were able to ask questions - one of the last questions that was asked was if they could recommend a book to junior leaders, what would they recommend.  I wrote down the list of books and actually ordered two of the ones that they listed (and I bought two books written by the gust speaker that resonated with me).  So, going into a new workweek, I have notes from the sessions I attended, four new books to read and catch up on everything I missed in the last week.  Bring it on...

I'm learning that I definitely need to prioritize and delegate when I can and work to the best of my ability and realize that's good enough.  I am one that takes on too much and wants it all to be perfect - however, I'm learning that this is only going to push me to burnout even more quickly.  Before attending this conference, I would say that I was a day or two away from hitting that point of burnout and that worries me.  I have been to that point several times over the last (almost) two years of being the director of my building and I need to change that.  I don't want to get to the point of losing my fight...

Being at the conference allowed me to network both with people who I've met before in one setting or another and with new individuals.  It was so much fun to see my friend who I haven't seen in 5 years and there was another individual who used to have my job and moved cross country about 3.5 years ago and he was at the conference too.  It was nice to sit in the evenings and talk with them to see what types of things they're doing in their programs and to share with them what I'm doing in mine.  There were several people who asked for my business card because they said they wanted to reach out to me as they go back to their buildings and I think that was pretty cool.  I even had a couple of people who were trying to recruit me to their program/buildings and that shocked me a little bit (but made me feel pretty awesome, too!).  We'll see who contacts me in the upcoming weeks...

Traveling back after my conference wasn't nearly as adventurous as traveling to the conference so I'm thankful for that.  I wasn't able to check in online but the gentleman at the ticket counter was phenomenal and even though it took him about 20-30 minutes to figure out what was going on, he talked with me the entire time and even went to the other airline ticket counter for me since I switched airlines during my connecting flight (other counter agents made the customer go wait in the other line and he just went for me which was awesome).  Even though there was a small country worth of people attempting to get through security all at the same time, they had a very efficient system and got people through fairly quickly so I'll take it.

Well my dear readers, since I have to go back to work in the AM and I'm still dealing with my body thinking I'm on the 3-hour time difference, I should probably bring this to a close for tonight and think about heading to bed (after I get things together for work tomorrow).  I hope you have a fabulous week and don't get to stress or burnout point...  Thanks for joining me!  =)