I set a big goal last year. It was to apply for, be accepted into, and attend Darren Hardy's High Performance Forum.

Everything happens for a reason

It all began with my friend and mentor, Dean, who introduced me to the Darren Daily mentoring videos a few years ago. Next my coach, Krista, gave me the book The Compound Effect. Now two unrelated people had called my attention to Darren and his work. I took their advice; I read the book and signed up to receive the videos. I found myself enjoying and learning from DarrenDaily and The Compound Effect.

I took many of the recommended actions, which impacted my business and life in positive ways. So many of the great ideas in the book and videos applied to me, my business, and (added bonus!) my clients. I was reminded of how to be a better leader. I learned about the grind of being an entrepreneur and how to be more effective. Creative ideas were shared to add high levels of service and value to my clients. There may have been a video or two where I felt chastised to stop the emotional hijack that gets in my way from time to time (how did he know?!) and to "just get over it" and get moving on taking action. Most of all, learning about how making small changes to get better every day produces great results.

Maybe next year...

As I mentioned, I set the goal and actually applied to attend the High Performance Forum a year ago. If I'm totally honest, I wasn't sure I qualified or would be approved to attend and was anxious about the expense. Secretly, I think I was hoping I wouldn't be approved, then I wouldn't have to worry about the money or potentially being over my skis with a group of highly successful business leaders where I might feel inadequate. That plan got foiled; I was approved to attend. Darren's team reached out to me many times via phone and email to book the date. I found myself unable to commit.

The stories in my head were:

I wasn't ready yet
Other attendees were going to have much more successful businesses than me
It was too much money to spend right now. I should be more cautious.
I don't know enough--I need to learn more and then I might be more worthy
What could I possibly contribute to this group of high performing leaders?

"So maybe next year", I said to Julie, Darren's VP of VIP Relations, yet again. She was patient and continued to follow up with me at timely intervals until I finally picked a date.

Stretching and Courage

On November 12, I found myself on AA#2680 heading to San Diego, CA for the week. I was excited, nervous, apprehensive, and euphoric--all at the same time. As we flew west over the snowcapped Rocky Mountains, I was reminded of my main goal with my business, Aspiration Catalyst, is to impact 10,000 women leaders to lead authentically and leverage their strengths to become their best selves. How could I do anything but stretch myself to do what scares me? How could I not have the courage to take the big leap to attend and participate in High Performance Forum? Why wouldn't I reach to be part of a group of amazing leaders who will help me stretch and grow? And for my clients especially, I must lead by example and walk the talk on setting and achieving courageous goals. So, I did.

Was it worth it?

Yes, yes, and yes. It was so worth it! I gained so much from the content delivered from Darren at High Performance Forum. He literally poured tons of marketing, sales, leadership, and high performance team knowledge into our cohort for 2.5 days straight-- I'm not sure he took a breath. He had this immense sense of urgency to make sure he gave us everything he wanted to give to us and it.was.AWESOME. I have a notebook full of colorful flags to identify important concepts, color-coded index cards to capture action items, and my head has been spinning non-stop with ideas, inspiration and motivation. Another great bonus: I made some fantastic connections with my fellow Forum participants and we are in touch to learn from each other, support each other on our journeys and make sure we get the results we are looking to achieve. We now have a common language to communicate with each other from High Performance Forum. We've formed a tribe. And I'll say it again--it was so worth it.

I'm signed up to go to HPF again next November. CAN'T WAIT!