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Photo: Courtesy Armosa Studios 

Last weekend I had the honor and privilege of being a part of the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon, USA. It was my first time being a part of this conference with over 2500 attendees, many of whom were veterans, coming every year for their dose of inspiration, meeting like-minded people and just being themselves.

Before going for the conference, many people asked me what kind of a conference was I going to? I,myself, didn’t know what to expect and explained it is a conference based on the themes of entrepreneurship, adventure, service and community. After the conference I can gladly say there was way more to it; It was about generosity, love, inspiration to live your best life, making a difference to our world, believing in our limitless potential and as Chris Guillebeau, founder of WDS puts it – “How to live a remarkable life in a conventional world”.

In this blog, I would like to share my learnings from WDS on an experiential level.
1) You are exactly where you are meant to be 
It was a little overwhelming looking at the schedule of WDS because there were so many activities/events that I really wanted to be a part of. Some of the attendee-led-meet ups were overlapping with each other and it was difficult to decide which ones to go for.
At the registration counter, a very helpful volunteer who gave me my badge  told me “Just know, that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, don’t try to do everything.” I took this valuable advice seriously, and it helped me throughout the weekend. When I was having an enjoyable conversation with someone at dinner, but knew the opening party was starting, I told myself, this is exactly where I am supposed to be, and decided not to rush to the party.  I am glad I did that, as I didn’t enjoy the party as much as I enjoyed the conversation at dinner.

I learnt that believing we are exactly where we are meant to be brings a sense of peace and freedom within us.

2) Follow your intuition
Due to the extensive list of activities/events, I found myself RSVPing for everything I found interesting, thus double booking myself a couple of times. So before every event that I was double booked for, I took a few moments to center myself, and see how I felt about each event. What did I feel for the dance meetup vs the newcomers lunch meetup? When I followed my gut and decided to go for one event over the other, the one I didn’t go for was actually cancelled. It saved me time and I ended up meeting interesting people.
The only time that I didn’t follow my intuition because I was a intimidated to speak to a “famous online entrepreneur” who I follow, was the time I had the least amount of fun.

It was when I followed my intuition that I met exactly the right person I needed to meet either to have a fun conversation, learn something new or make a connection. 

I re-learnt that I have all the answers within me, and when I am confused, just think about all the options and go with the one that creates a spark or a feeling of lightness.

3) Go outside your comfort zone 
I am not an extrovert, put me in a room of 2500 people where I almost know no body, I am surely outside my comfort zone. I am good with one-on-one conversations, but not so great in a group of strangers. There were many times that I pushed myself outside my comfort zone and starting to talk to people, taking that first step was when I started having some great experiences.
I realized that growth happens when we push ourselves a little more than our comfort zone – whether it is taking the first step to talk to a stranger, or pushing myself a little longer in a yoga pose or putting myself out there with a blog post and exposing myself to the world. We open ourselves to opportunities that would never have come to us if we didn’t push ourselves beyond our comfort zone.

More to follow about what I learnt from the remarkable speakers in my next blog.

Sending out love to all,
Aarty

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