Your to-do and your ta-da list

What are you already doing well?  

Dear Friends,

Every morning I create a long and usually ambitious to-do list. This is peppered with connections that need a direct message response or making an introduction between two amazing people in my network.

In an internal meeting I mentioned this illustrious, seemingly never-ending list with boxes begging to be ticked. My colleague mentioned his to-do and his ta-da list (thanks Patrick!). Ta-da list? I was intrigued. This is a reminder of the actions you already completed in the day or the week. How often are we snowed under with the daily tasks that we forget to congratulate ourselves for the work we have done well?

Your challenge this week

For alumni-facing professionals: What little victories can you recall from the past week or month that positively affected the lives of alumni? Did you invite a new alum to volunteer? Did you organize an event with many enthusiastic alumni in attendance? We impact alumni lives in seemingly small ways, but often these can be poignant moments of belonging for our alumni. Can you list five ta-da moments that impacted alumni feeling part of the community? (and check out Kathy Edersheim’s article here to understand why I used the word community instead of network.

For students and alumni: What new connections do you have in your network? This is cause for celebration! Take a moment to create not only a to-do list but also a ta-da list to acknowledge to yourself the inroads you made in exploring your alumni self. Check out your LinkedIn connections, set this as today’s baseline of connections – create a target of reaching out to new alumni between now and the end of 2023 – more opportunities for career exploration – ta-da! (and here’s an article on Roostervane to give additional inspiration!)

Want to talk about your alumni-infused ta-da list? Last chance to sign up for a 1-to-1 Alumni Friday session with me (for fun, for free!) here. Let’s talk all things alumni!

With alumni magic,

Maria

Quote from the book

"We are all welcome members of our alumni communities."

The Alumni Way, p. 176



Photo below: Ta-da! (at least it looks like I am saying that!) My keynote at the Alumni-Clubs.net conference in Vienna in May – an event that had its magical moments! Happy to be your next animated energetic keynote – let’s discuss!