Personal/Professional Development

By Steven Reames

​​This summer, I was privileged to attend two different conferences for professional and personal development: the first was directly related to my profession as a medical society executive was outstanding for relationship building with people who do the same thing as me. The other was a general leadership summit simulcast and the content was simply outstanding, internationally renowned authors and speakers like Patrick Lencioni and John Maxwell.

But both had the same impact: I came out of those meetings completely recharged and energized for the work I do, both the daily how to do things better and smarter and more effectively as well as the larger strategic and visionary things.

Now, I’m built as a leader and I love innovating so for me, this is what fills up my bucket. My energy and passion levels are at their peak.

For you it might be different: perhaps you know you need to develop your speaking skills because you do more public presentations than you thought you would. You might consider a Toastmasters group, which is a very effective way of improving your confidence with leadership and public speaking. But it also could be taking a recreational class like ballroom dancing or tennis.

Here’s the thing about personal and professional development and how it relates to resiliency: the benefit of actually learning the skills or information is one thing. But the secondary benefits are 1) getting the endorphin hits from your “aha” and “I did it moments” and probably most importantly developing relationships with others learning alongside you.
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Can I challenge you: do you have regular time set aside for personal and professional development – and I’m not talking about sitting in front of a computer taking CME online – but actually alongside other human beings? If not, I believe it will do you a world of good for you. ​