Conference Survival Guide–The After

Part 1–The Before

Part 2–The During

You made it!!!  It all happened so fast–there’s no way the whole thing is over already. You’re still riding the high of your emotions and you’re full to the rim and pouring over with excitement and ideas and you’re going to change things for sure!

You get home. You’re anxious. You’re ready to run like a wild horse.And there’s laundry and bills and phone calls and — Life. The excitement dies little by little. A sort of depression kind of sets in. Things get put off. Before you know it months have flown by.

Is there a way to change it? Honestly, I don’t know.  My best attempt at preventing post-conference let-down comes with making lots of lists.

First though, I try my best not to schedule anything out of the ordinary and mundane for the day and the day after I get back home. The day I come home is for my family. The next day is for me. Sometimes I take two or three days off from major tasks.

Generally, I walk away from each conference with one message that outshines the others.  This is the one thing I talk with my husband about. I’ll tell him about three or four bullet points of the conference and that’s it.  His head would explode all over me if I tried to insert by osmosis allllllll of the things I’d like to spew. I take no offense in that. He loves me, he knows my passions, he supports me, he’s my best friend…but…he can’t handle me when I’m in Idea High Gear. So he gets my love-energy and I save my  idea-energy for my Me Time.  And of course, my son really has no use for hearing why I’ve been gone. He just wants to be with me.

I give them what they need. It’s that simple.

Then…I write my lists.

Spend some serious time with your main walk-away message. Write down you goals, what you want to change, what you’d like to reinforce, eliminate, transform, and manipulate. Be very specific.  Spend a little less time with other ideas, but get them in writing. (This is very important. Get them in writing AS SOON as you can.)

Over the coming weeks and months, work on developing a plan to implement the changes.

(You can’t and shouldn’t do it all at once even though you think you’re superhuman and can certainly change it ALL today.)

(You can’t.)

The sooner you understand this, the more you’ll get done. Because when you think you can do it all NOW you get overwhelmed in the first day and then you pretend it’s not there so you don’t get all down about not doing what you really want to do. If you just accept the fact that it’s going to take a little bit of work every day over many days, you’ll certainly make the transformation your heart is desiring after such an exciting time.

Make a plan. Set goals. Follow Through.

Go back to all those business cards and separate them. Break them down into little chunks. Visit two or three at a time and don’t feel guilty for spreading them out. It’ll be better to focus on a few rather than trying to cram everything in at once.

You’ve made new friends…enjoy them.

You’ve made new goals…work hard.

And–you’re no longer a conference newbie! Share the love!

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3 thoughts on “Conference Survival Guide–The After”

  1. I’ve been making lists all day! Nothing post-conference related on my agenda today – just getting back into routine (and increasing the amount of “Mommy-time” for the kids). But, I’m excited for the day in the near future when my lists can become realities!

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