Last week I had the opportunity to fly to LA and attend Rachel Hollis’ RISE conference. The conference is focused on personal development (with a theme of “Made for More”) and provides two days worth of speakers that will challenge the way you think, inspire you to jump out of your seat and dance (yes, it’s one of those conferences), or present new ideas you never thought about before. I took a ton of notes and thought I’d share with you some of the highlights, phrases, or questions that I thought worthy of writing down and bringing home to think more about! Consider this your cliff notes and free sneak peek inside of RISE . . .
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The Power of Habit: Rachel Hollis spoke about habits and shared that 70% of what we do in a day is a habit. A habit is created by a trigger, which leads to an action or reaction, which leads to a reward. Key takeaway: we oftentimes can’t change a trigger, but we can change our action or reaction, and ultimately the reward. An example would be if staying at work late is a trigger, the action (habit) may be that you get unhealthy takeout on the way home, and the reward from that habit is that you enjoy the food (up until you feel terrible about this decision). We may not be able to leave work earlier, but we can change how we respond and come up with a new habit that does not include unhealthy food choices.
Pursuing Your Creative Passions: Jen Hatmaker talked about pursuing our creative passions. She broke it down to three reasons why we should pursue what we feel we were meant to do by reminding us of what we aren’t: 1. You are not stuck in a category because you were once branded that way (e.g. “damaged,” “victim,” “unhealthy”). 2. You are not unworthy of building or creating. It’s okay to go out on a fragile limb to try something even if you do not have the credentials. 3. You are not in competition with other women. We can’t have too much beauty or too many stories — there’s room for you.
Changing Your Mindset: Elyse Snipes told the story of her life and hardships she’s walked through, and challenged us to consider believing the inverse of situations/labels. For example, instead of being a “victim” you should consider yourself a “survivor.” She encouraged us by saying a season of joy comes out of seasons of wreckage.
Rising Above Mediocre: Dave Hollis spoke about his transition from a President at Disney to becoming the CEO of his wife’s company, Chic Media. He talked about committing to a lifetime of personal development, not worrying about other people’s opinion of your development, and his belief that if we do not grow — we will not be fulfilled. His message was focused on intentionally choosing uncertainty as someone who had come from always clinging to certainty. He left us thinking about what we’d want people to say about us if they were to give a toast/speech about us when we turned 60.
Five Reasons People Give Up On Their Dreams: Rachel Hollis spoke about the five reasons people give up on their dreams: 1. A voice of authority tells you NO. 2. Somebody else beats you to it. 3. It’s hard. 4. It’s taking too long. 5. Short term failure becomes a long term decision.
Personal Style, Why It Matters: Toi Sweeney talked about dreaming big and dressing well. She talked about why what we wear really does matter and asked us to think about what legacy we want to leave behind. She shared that our image gives us a competitive edge and left us pondering what we consider our personal brand.
There was also a panel of successful women including Mica May, Landyn Hutchinson, Anna Todd, and Elizabeth Lascaze. Each one shared their story of how they got to where they are and provided encouragement for all of us as we pursue our own goals.
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Some of my favorite quotes throughout the day . . .
-“How would the best version of me show up right now?” – Rachel Hollis
-“When you try to stand up for something, you may be told to sit back down. And sometimes it’s your own voice.” – Jen Hatmaker
-“You are far more than your worst day or experience” – Jen Hatmaker
-“Maybe you’re growing forward and you’re changing. Something doesn’t have to be bad for it to be over, it might be time to run to something else.” – Jen Hatmaker
“All the things you think disqualify you are the things that qualify you.” – Elyse Snipes
-“What’s your greatest fear?” – Dave Hollis
-“Mediocre people pull great people back to mediocre” – Dave Hollis
-“Are you as fulfilled as you’d like?” – Dave Hollis
-“Stop breaking promises to yourself” – Rachel Hollis
-“Comparison is the death of joy” – Rachel Hollis
-“You don’t know what’s standing on the other side of your hard. Your dream doesn’t go away just because it got hard.” – Rachel Hollis
-“Nothing that lasts is accomplished quickly” – Rachel Hollis
-“Real women aren’t perfect, and perfect women aren’t real” – Rachel Hollis
-“Dress the way you want to be addressed” – Toi Sweeney
-“Think of yourself as a company, your clothing is your packaging” – Toi Sweeney
-“You are not fat, you have fat” – Rachel Hollis
-“However long you have to meet with a mentor, you should spend double that preparing for the meeting.” – Rachel Hollis
-“This wasn’t what I signed up for, but it was something I was meant for” – Mica May
-“You have to know what time it is. Is it time to sprint? Is it time to rest?” – Mica May
-“What is the one thing that if you focused on it, it would make everything else easier, faster, better?” – Rachel Hollis
-“Don’t get off track by chasing money” – Rachel Hollis
-“Devote 1 hour a day, 5 days a week minimum working on your goal. Check in with yourself on Sundays to see if it’s working” – Rachel Hollis
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There were a lot of amazing moments above and beyond what I’ve captured here (practical tips for setting goals, meditations, a 90’s dance party, etc.), but I hope something I’ve shared has made you stop and think and feel inspired to achieve your dreams. If you’re interested in attending RISE in 2019, rumor has it (per the back of the program this year) it will be held in June in Minnesota.
High five to goals!
