This past week I grabbed my mother and drove eagerly to Philadelphia, PA. Why? Why not! Any excuse to go to this rad city is an excuse I’m using. Lucky for me the excuse this time around was a pretty sweet deal. The Pennsylvania Women’s Conference has been going on for 12 years now, I went two years ago and it was kill-er! So I JUMPED at the chance to go again. Why Pennsylvania Women’s Conference as Marylander you may ask? Well if Maryland has a comparable conference, I’d be all over that too. Maybe it’s about time we got one?!
*note to self — add start MD Women’s Conference TO DO LIST* 😉

Conference’s drive me like travel drives me. It reminds me how big the world is and how small I am in comparison, in a really good way. It also reminds me how many other totally bad-ass #girlbosses there are out there. But most importantly it’s a sense of community and belonging to a group of life-long learners who are constantly and consistently challenging themselves to be their best selves…and that’s really cool to be around. Talk about high vibration living!

Anyways…I dig this conference a lot because they always seem to nab an incredible spectrum of speakers who bring their wisdom, truths, and empowering messages packaged in tasty knowledge-nuggets. Check out their full speaker line-up here. I wanted to share with you some of their brain food if for no other reason than it’s just good stuff. The day was too quick but I came away feeling inspired with a giant kick in the pants. Just how I like it.

Takeaways on…

Career

• “If you like where you’re coming from, you can be fearless for the future.” – Rachael Ray
• “It’s not about being brilliant, it’s about staying open and listening to feedback.” – John Jacobs 
• “Have an appetite for failure.” – Anne Kreamer
• “When it comes to taking risks, be clear about what you want.”
• “Change leads to insight more than insight leads to change.” – Anne Kreamer 
• “Stop comparing yourself to the ideal.” – Gloria Steinem

Life

• “Money is boring unless you do something with it.” – Gloria Steinem 
• “Value your time…have a quality to your life.” – Rachael Ray
• “Live with an elevated sense of gratitude.” – John Jacobs 

The World 

• “We all crave meaning in our lives…#growthegood” – John Jacobs
• “We have to unlearn that we are ranked rather than linked.” – Gloria Steinem 
• “Optimism is most powerful when it’s surround by darkness.” – John Jacobs 
• Why should we care? “The world is a global village…it gives hope to humanity…every drop of good inspires someone else to do some good.” – Leymah Gbowee

As we roll into the week of Thanks-giving, I wanted to leave you with one more thing that really stuck with me from the conference. John Jacobs, the co-founder and chief creative optimist of The Life is Good Company talked a lot about mindset and optimism. He said that by changing two words in your daily vernacular, you can change your whole mindset. Those two words are “get to.” Meaning… instead of saying “I have to go to work today.” you say, “I get to go to work today.” Instead of saying, “I have to go to the doctor.” – you say, “I get to go to the doctor.”

Seems simple but I’ve been using it ever since and can already feel a shift. A strong sense of gratitude is optimal living in my opinion. This small switch retrains your brain to recognize the things we have to do as things we are privileged to do. A needed reminder that some don’t get to. Perspective huh? Give it a try for yourself — see how it feels.

ALMOST FORGOT!
I met RACHAEL RAY!! She signed her new cookbook and a little piece of my heart exploded with #fangirl joy.
Annnnd scene.