“Nothing will happen if you don’t take action.”
The older I get and the more I write, the more I notice my personal and professional life seem to collide…in a good way. Back in the day, most of my 20s, there weren’t many boundaries between my professional and personal life. It was too much work, not enough life. Balance was off.
Now that I’ve worked towards setting boundaries and keeping some distance between the two, they’ve started to mesh, in a good way.
But this isn’t a blog about work life balance. That’s for another day…
Former Dragons back on campus to learn!
I recently attended an event at a local university, my alma mater, MSU Moorhead – go, Dragons! The keynote speaker was the smart and witty PR pro, Shonali Burke. She shared inspiring stories with good takeaways to keep in mind for anyone who works in PR, social media, event planning, marketing, or related field.
As a writer and PR pro, I enjoyed the event and opportunity to hear her speak. As a blogger and wellness enthusiast, I enjoyed the event and opportunity to hear her speak. Worlds colliding.
She ended with the quote I used to kick off this blog (so simple yet YES), and three key messages. I thought about them and how I try to apply them to myself, both personally and professionally.
1. Face your fears
There’s value in failure. I’m a big believer in doing things even if you’re scared to fail – in personal life. I’ve shared many personal stories, one I’m most proud of is my decision to – for the third time – try to qualify for Boston Marathon, even though I was scared I’d fail again.
I’m a big believer in doing things even if you’re scared to fail – in professional life. When I earned my new role at RDO Equipment Co. of PR Specialist, no one had been in that role before. The company had never had a PR program. It was up to me to build it and make it successful. It was scary and I know I made mistakes and failed in some areas along the way. But I’ve also learned from those mistakes and failures, and been successful in several other areas along the way.
I did it – after failing twice, I achieved my goal of qualifying for Boston Marathon.
On another note, I faced one of my fears at this event. One of my fears is speaking up in large group settings. After Shonali spoke to my belief of not letting fear of failure get in your way, I had to ask her if she could share an example of a failure she learned from. Probably not a fun question for someone to answer but she obliged.
2. Be of service
One of the reasons I started blogging (and continue to do it regularly) is because I genuinely want to help others be well. As much as I do it for my own enjoyment and stress relief, I really do want it to be a resource people can look to, whether to learn or find the answer to a question or to laugh and just be entertained.
One of the reasons I love what I do as a PR pro is my work provides helpful info to customers and potential customers. It also provides content for our website, marketing team, and salespeople.
3. Keep your feet moving
This can be taken quite literally in the running world. I think about it when anyone asks me for advice as they’re about to run their first race, whether a 5k or marathon. One of my key pieces of advice: don’t stop moving. Ideally, keep running, even if you’re running so slow you’re practically walking. Or, if you need to slow down to walk, do it. Just don’t stop moving.
This also extends to wellness. Keep moving towards your goals, even if the steps are small some days. It’s so much harder to get back going again once you’ve stopped, so just keep moving.
And I think you can see how this applies to professional life as well. Some days suck. Some days are just unfocused and unproductive. But that doesn’t mean you just give up and stop. There’s always something small that can be done to keep yourself going. It might not have the biggest impact on your work but it does on your work well-being.
Tying it all together is the quote: Nothing will happen if you don’t take action. Take action – face your fears. Take action – be of service. Take action – keep your feet moving. Take action in these three areas and make good shit happen.
Thank you, Shonali Burke for your lessons and entertainment. Side note, I really want to visit Washington D.C. – not just because I love history but because I want to try one of your famous dosas…then tweet about it. Obviously tweet about it 🙂
Do you feel you can apply Shonali’s wisdom to your personal or professional life? Do these concepts inspire any new ideas or actions? Please share your thoughts in the comments or tweet me, @LindsayIRL.