Look i nG
BAck
To
Move
For WA rD
A longstanding
NSA member shares
her poignant journey
to self-renewal
through reflection.
By Betsy Buckley, APR
Illustration by Alex Mathers
early two years ago, “I’d love to” popped out of
my mouth when I was invited to join NSA members Dan
Janal and Manny Steil in kicking off a new segment for
our Minnesota chapter meetings called “Moments from
the Masters.” In the old days, that was my standard reply
to any NSA request, even if I would have rather taken a
frozen shower or walked over a red-hot bed of coals. This
time, I was saying an authentic “yes.” Not just because
I’d reached a magic age where there’s presumed wisdom,
but because of hard-won, deeply personal insight into
our assigned topic: What’s the one lesson you wish you’d
learned earlier in your speaking career?
On the day of that meeting, I stood before 40 or 50 of
my Minnesota colleagues. With courage and an inner confidence, I explained, “I don’t know that I was ready to
learn this lesson earlier, but I really get it now. You haven’t
seen me much in the past few years, and there’s a reason.
