Last week, I attended a seminar entitled, Get Motivated! (don’t laugh.) A colleague of mine was given a few extra admission tickets to the local event and offered one to me. I had heard about the seminar on the radio and thought it sounded like a really interesting way to spend a Friday afternoon.
The seminar went from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm but no way could I take an entire day away from “productive time” (productive time = working on the computer, or working with clients. No deviation) No, a seminar is not really necessary and something I don’t really need to do, so taking a whole day away from my business, my routine, would really be out of the question. Half a day will do just fine.
Now, the seminar was free and had a list of speakers that included big names like: Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who made the emergency landing in the Hudson River last winter. Not too shabby, right? Even if you don’t much agree with the politics of the first two, how cool would it be to listen to “Cap’n Sully” talk about the experience of successfully landing a jetliner down onto an aquatic runway? I’m in!
I get there and I see that I’m not the only genius in Greensboro who thought this sounded like a good idea. The Coliseum was 90% full. As I glanced around the crowded place I thought, “Wow, everyone here shares one commonality; they’re obviously open to a new idea.” Maybe they’re looking for a way to improve their financial situation, enhance their career or seek encouragement to help them deal with a personal struggle. Whatever it is, they’re here, I thought, putting aside their life duties, in the name of self-improvement. Because if they weren’t receptive to some form of change, they’d be home, doing their own interpretation of “productive time.”
I’m feeling a twinge of remorse. The speakers I heard were inspiring and interesting! Why didn’t I recognize this opportunity as one that would be valuable enough to devote my entire day to? And while I’m coming clean about not exactly seeing this experience as important enough to swap it out for “productive time,” let me also add (with my head hung low) that I didn’t see anyone else sauntering in after the lunch break. Oh, the shame!
I had a great time listening to the speakers. Loved hearing them share their stories of lessons learned, wisdom gained and applicable advice. How easy it is to keep banging at the widgets of our lives, rarely stopping to take the opportunity to refresh, renew and regroup. And how fulfilling and yes, fun it is to challenge yourself; mix it up from time to time.
It’s easy to get stuck in routine, telling ourselves that new opportunities – whether they are personal, like getting together with new friends or professional, like attending continuing education opportunities – are just something we’d rather not do. Too much work to make it happen! But thinking short-term and getting waylaid by logistics isn’t what got you where you are today. Keep momentum going; seek out opportunities to see things from a different perspective by getting out from your world. The fruit of new information is growth. Hey, the seminar must have worked! There’s no way I was capable of coming up with Ghandi-like advice like this before I… Got Motivated!
Are you guilty of not taking time to experience new opportunities that might challenge your status quo?