Take a development vacation even if it’s only an hour or two
How often do you get out of your office and surround yourself with others in your field? You should as often as you can.
Next week I will be at the ASTD Chapter Leadership Conference. Besides being filled with incredible information, I know that I will come away incredibly recharged and excited about learning and development and the possibilities of the ideas and people in this field as I was last year. After thinking about what it was that had me so jazzed, I realized that it wasn’t the sessions which were awesome and it wasn’t the content which was terrific and it wasn’t the time out of the office which was nice. It was being around other people who are passionate, smart, and engaged at a whole other level. I’m sure this year will be the same.
I always knew going to conferences was important for professional development but for some reason this one really drove home the point, that it is incredibly important to spend time around people who are excited, motivated and smarter than you. This is where you will grow and development. So many times at work, we are somewhat isolated in the work we do and always around the same people and same ideas and outcomes. Not that that is a bad thing but sometimes, you need to get out of your comfort zone.
The bottom line is, get out of the office, go to a national or international conference or workshop. Even a local ASTD or ISPI or eLearning Guild meeting or any other type of group you can find that interests you can be beneficial. It doesn’t have to be a big international conference although those are great, you can find a local monthly meeting. You many find the same result. You also need to find people who are smarter than you and hang around them either virtually or live. Like a plant, if we don’t grow we die.
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