I liked the mind shift you talk about, and I wonder if there isn’t at least one more stage: from “this is how it is” to “this is where it’s at” to “this is where I’m going.”

I agree also about the value of participating. Some years ago, I decided to propose a presentation for the ISPI annual conference. The closer it got to the actual conference, the less wise the idea seemed –

Yet the self-chosen target made me think about the work I’d been doing. I didn’t want to just yap about it or tell war stories — I wanted to clarify the things I’d learned that could be useful to others.

And that was the aha moment for me: here’s what we’ve been doing (at my job at the time), and here’s what we learned that you might find worthwhile in a similar situation.

Not all that earthshaking, maybe, but it got me out of the how-do-I-do-well mode.