to not find inspirational speakers inspirational

[Gingerlilly]

I sometimes have to go to conferences at work and usually we have an 'inspirational' speaker, usually someone who has climbed a mountain or become a CEO of a multi-million company whilst being a Mum to 5 and running a marathon at the same time. Is it just me or does this just make you feel like they are saying 'look at me and how great I am and look at how rubbish you are, just about managing to get up for work each day and eating chocolate and drinking gin all weekend. Not inspirational at all, just annoying really. Lovely for them if thats what they enjoy but why make me feel bad about it. At least 50% of my collegues at work or friends on facebook are either doing an iron man, parachute jump, trapese training etc and posting their triumphs - I just don't want to quite frankly but constantly feel inadequate because I am so inherently lazy. Maybe I am old and bitter but I do find that it irritates me more and more. Hoping I'm not the only one.

We had a Lightning Process woman come and talk to us for half a day once. Possibly the worst talk ever. Anyone else been inflicted with them?

I had to come back to this thread. Was unfortunate enough to sit through a very lacklustre talk yesterday, with dramatic pauses. She wasnt very good. Didnt give us any actual tools to do what she wanted us to do. Implied that parents of dc with a diagnosis were responsible for it. She meant we should take responsibility for the child but was very clumsily formulated, and completely failed to acknowledge that without a diagnosis there is very little support to be had and even with a diagnosis you have to fight. I wont repeat on mn what she said about women in abusive relationships.

I agree that many motivational speakers really aren't very good and get their gigs because of their fame and not because they are actually particularly interesting or inspiring. That said I have heard some excellent speakers, generally they either have genuine skills or learning to offer or have a meaningful story to share. Generally they are also not all about ego and are as happy to share their mistakes as their triumphs and to acknowledge the people in their life who made a difference. In fact the person who made the biggest impact on me as a speaker was someone who made it all about the people that had helped them and very little about how great they themselves were (and as a rags to riches type story they had plenty to be personally proud of).

Otherwise I take most of these events very much as I took Sunday sermons as a child, an opportunity to tune out and day dream.