Over a period of three decades I have taken about 100 motivational seminars so I believe that I am qualified to write about the subject or at least to describe my personal experience and the conclusions that I have reached after the experiences.

One thing that a good seminar will do is to get you boosted and fired up. You come back with the feeling that you could take on the world. You’ve taken notes, you’ve set up goals, you’ve made plans, you have that list of things to do, what you’re going to change and what steps you’re going to take to reach the next plateau in your professional life.

There are things that you will change and chances are that you will see a dramatic increase in business for a few weeks and maybe a month or two. But as time passes there is a tendency to get back to the level that you were before taking the seminar.

Easy come, easy go says the old proverb. And that is very true as far as seminars are concerned. Your state of mind has been changed for a period of time but the effect of the seminar has not been wired in your brain. So is bound to partially disappear with time.

Something else that those seminars will do is that you will meet some very successful people. If you play your cards right, you may bond with these exceptional people and friendships may develop. Those friendships will become tremendous assets.

It is a well known fact that you eventually gravitate to become like the people that you hang around with. Hang around with winners and you’ll become a winner, hang around with losers and down the drain you go. So, if you are smart, you will nurture the relation with those that you would like to model and emulate.

Seminars will also force you to expand your horizon and open new vistas for you. You will see and hear what others have done and you probably will realize that you have been setting your goals and objectives too low. After all, if the guys sitting next to you at the seminar could do it, why could you not also do it yourself? That old testosterone will kick in and chances are that it will be a wakeup call for you.

There is no question that seminars are great and if you are serious about succeeding you certainly should take some. There is money involved but it is well worth it if you follow these rules.

1. A good seminar will open the doors for you and will get you all fired up but that feeling has to be actively sustained through daily motivational sessions. Those sessions can be done by reading motivational material, listening to tapes, CDs or videos or even reading the notes that you took at the seminar. Enthusiasm is like a fire it will soon die unless it is regularly fed.

2. Keep in touch with the new friends or contacts that you’ve made at the seminar through networking at least once a week. Share you goals and objectives with these people. It will heighten your commitments It will make sure that you keep your eyes on the ball and go through with your plans.

3. Don’t try to teach what you’ve learned at the seminar to anyone. This may sound strange but it is a very important element that must be respected if you want to really benefit from your seminar.

The reason for that is the fact that you probably will be so impressed with what you got out of that seminar that you’ll feel that the whole world should know about it. So, instead of applying that technology yourself, you will waste your time and energy trying to teach it to other. Remember that you really “got” that information because you were in the seminar’s atmosphere and that is something that cannot be replicated in the settings of everyday life.

So, keep that technology and knowledge to yourself until you have achieved your goals and objectives… and then, go out and transform the world if you still want to do it.

Some seminar experiences are elementary and essential to pave the path to success. Whatever money you invest in yourself will never be lost and will pay great dividend, if, and only if, you follow the above rules.

It is said that what you don’t know cannot hurt you. That is false. Success is a science and not a fluke. The “how” to succeed has to be learned and a motivational seminar is a great place to start. It may only be the first step to success… but you know what they say about a journey of a thousand miles, it starts with the first step.

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