Serious Business 2013
On January 20th, 7 Spa Bleu members attended a two day conference called Serious Business, in New Orleans. Now you may ask what was this conference all about? And to be honest before heading down there I myself had no clue what to expect. And to my shock I came back completely re-motivated in life and in business. See this conference was full of motivational speakers from all over this country who taught us all how to be present. I know that sounds hokey but how many times are we really present? Think for a second when you are listening to what someone is saying and thoughts of what errands you could be running or tasks you could be doing are running through your head? How about when you pick your kids up from school, are you listening to how their day went? Or are you thinking of what to cook for dinner? We so seldomly give 100%. And a statement so easy as “be present” was enough to send shock waves through me. For the first time I realized that I’m not only cheating myself out of an experience but I’m cheating out whomever I’m with at that moment. So I declared after leaving this conference that I truly will allow myself to be PRESENT!
Now besides learning how to be present we also learned how to work better as a team and how to find our own personal joy in life. One of my absolute favorite speakers was Erik Wahl, during his speech he likes to paint portraits and I know that sounds weird but it was amazing to watch him perform. One of my “ a ha” moments was when he asked the audience…“how many of you can draw?” And out of 1500 audience members 3 very timid people raised their hand…Now Erik laughed and said “I know that took a lot of bravery for you 3 to admit that.” And then he said “How many preschoolers when asked the same question said they could draw?” You know each and every one of them, whether they can or not, raised BOTH hands when answering that question! His point was we all need to go back to when we were kids and thought we could do anything. When did we start putting limits on ourselves? And why?? What comes to us when we limit ourselves other than walls?? The most powerful and influential people in this world always say the same thing…”THE SKY IS THE LIMIT, NOTHING IS GOING TO STOP ME!”
Pretty powerful stuff huh? You can image why I said I left New Orleans re-motivated. So now let’s talk about one of the coolest cities in America, New Orleans. If you have not been I strongly urge you all to go! It is a city full of life, music, culture and some of the most amazing food I’ve ever had! Walking down the streets you see beautiful architecture, hear amazing jazz music blasting out of a restaurant, smell the most delicious food and of course you can just feel the energy that is surging through everyone because this town is full of life!
This trip was such an eye opener for me in many ways but the most amazing thing about this trip was I got to share it with 6 of my spa bleu family members! We went down to New Orleans as friends and came back as family! Remember to be PRESENT..
Nikki Q
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