“It’s the first day of spring and my life is starting over again…”
This song, by Noah and the Whale, starts playing as I write this post and it kind of sets the mood for my writing. Every time I listen to the opening line I get a feeling of being reborn which was pretty much the feeling I got yesterday after finishing my Ignite talk.
For those less familiar with myself and with this blog let me tell you that I did my first Ignite talk in March this year when I discovered the concept and just thought it was an amazing initiative. You may be wondering that there’s a big difference between attending an Ignite event and speaking at one, and it may sound like a risky (call it insane if you like) move to go from being unaware of the event to jumping on stage to deliver an (hopefully) inspiring talk.
So this is where New Year’s resolutions enter the storyboard: my only resolution this year was to step out of my comfort zone as much as I could. So jumping on stage to supposedly inspire others seemed like the sort of thing that would do the trick.
Yesterday I did it again. This time I was even more nervous (let’s just say that the first time went pretty smooth), and believe me when I tell you that I was fighting my lizard brain (that just kept telling me “you’ll disappoint them”). I stepped up, I spoke, I fought the lizard and I won. And at the end I was reborn and had fed my brain’s amygdala with the pleasant feeling of taking that risky step (if none of what I’m saying makes sense to you please come back during the weekend when I’ll post my presentation 😉 ).
And as a bonus, a big bonus, I reencountered some great people, met some new smashing people (kudos to Ricardo Sousa for accepting my challenge and helping to “set on fire” my hometown 🙂 ), was entertained and got ignited.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all those strange (or not so strange) faces that nodded, smiled, peaked, cheered and actively listened to the weirdest five minutes (both long and short) that an Igniter gets. And to all of those that, online or offline, took a few minutes of their precious time to give me their feedback.
To me that’s the true Ignite spirit: you get so much more than you give…
The art of life and work 