"Early in my career, I found conferences to be so overwhelming that I'd sometimes just hide in the bathroom, go into an anxious spiral of fear and guilt, and then try to convince myself to get out and talk to at least one person. Watching how other people seemed to enjoy these events and easily talk to everyone made me think something was wrong with me."
"What helped is when I switched my goal to enjoying the event, meeting interesting people, learning new things, and making new friends. This made me more relaxed and, thus, more willing to be open and talk to people. A study from Harvard Business School also found that those who relabeled their preperformance anxiety as "excitement" did better than those who tried to calm down."
An introverted professional felt intense anxiety at conferences, sometimes hiding in bathrooms and spiraling with fear and guilt before forcing interactions. Anxiety affects about 36% of young people, yet it does not ease networking challenges. Networking remains crucial for career advancement, compensation, promotions, and satisfaction. Repeated attendance and deliberate practice led to mechanisms that enable effective engagement and enjoyment of events, yielding partnerships and revenue. Changing pre-event goals from transactional outcomes to enjoying the event, learning, and making friends reduced pressure. Research indicates relabeling anxiety as excitement improves performance. Practical preparation includes researching attendees and arranging meetings with value-focused agendas.
Read at Fast Company
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