Conference Time

This week I have been in Fort Lauderdale for the Florida Association of Museum's Annual Conference (with a side visit to the Court House for jury duty...).  Conferences can be kind of exhausting but always make you feel reinvigorated and energized, wanting to get back to work and do great things!  I have been developing a session for many many months with some amazing museum professionals and today we presented.  I think it went very well and I was relieved to hear so many people say that they thought it was the best session they attended (why thank you!)  There's always a lot of pressure to give a good session.  You want people to be able to take something away and of course not be bored.  

awkward bathroom shot- about to head to my session! 

I always get very nervous before presentations.  Its just something that is out of my comfort zone.  I'd much rather listen and absorb then be the one speaking.  At many points in my life this has become crippling, leaving me with constant stomach aches, missing out on discussions and conversations, and having low self esteem.  But as I've written before, I've gradually pushed myself into situations like presenting at conferences, to help me overcome this and show myself that "hey, I can do that!"  Its not easy, but it has gotten easier.

My good friend Makenzie introduced me to this video the other day and if you have 20 minutes its worth your time.  It speaks on the idea of "power posing", a simple pose that can help boost your confidence and make you think "Yes I Can!"  And it suggests changing the idea of "faking it until you make it" to "faking it until you become it".  Needless to say, I was doing some power posing right before my presentation!

I'll be anxious to get the overall feedback from the Conference to see how our session went over.  For now, it is one giant task I can check off my to do list and tonight I think I will sleep a little easier :)