#dareconf 2014

I had a pleasure to attend and present at #dareconf 2014 last month. It was a unique and personal experience, not only because I was talking about some very personal things (my journey to kill an inner “good girl” and stop being a perfectionist – see video below). Every other talk had something I could relate to and workshops were also ace.

Especially three talks made a huge impression on me. Keri Maijala talked about how to keep working in the time of crisis – or how to fall apart mindfully – and it not only hit close home, but also broke all the windows and left a hole in the roof. Working, being productive and event efficient when your whole life falls apart is difficult, but is doable as long as there is something you can focus on. For Keri it was work, for me it was my PhD.

Another talk I could identify with was How to stop rescuing people by Samantha Soma. In the past two years I also had to learn how to stop rescuing people because it was my “rescuer syndrome” that got me into trouble I mention in my talk.

The third talk that stuck in my head was by Caroline Moore who talked about deconstructing excuses. She talked about how she learned to really think about excuses and consequences of her actions, and this is something I would like to learn too. “I can’t” or “I don’t have time” are nice excuses, but they often don’t really mean anthing and unpicking what hides behind them can be extremely useful.

You can watch my talk below, hope you will find it useful. You can also watch all other talks on the #dareconf website.

~Falka, 11 October 14