I was a good girl. I used to do the things I thought I was supposed to do. I never made a ruckus.
I would watch and admire and (sometimes criticize) people who were making things happen in life.
I always knew I couldn’t do a better job than them, but once in a while I could see from an outside perspective, that maybe they could have made better choices.
The part I never had considered, was how absolutely brave it was for them to show up and try in the first place.
2017 has been my year to be brave and my ears have been super tuned to anything I come across talking about bravery.
Brene Brown interviewed Oprah, and Oprah talked about what it takes to live a brave life. People in the comments were awful talking about how she doesn’t have to be braver because she is rich and can do anything she wants.
At the Garth Brooks concert, Garth talked about someone who asked him if he ever gets scared, and he said only when I release something new.
The more I try to be brave, the more deeply I understand this quote written by Theodore Roosevelt.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
I have tried to find the reason why he spoke these words in the first place, I haven’t been able to find out ‘why’, but I can’t help but wonder what he must have faced in order to first understand this kind of bravery, and then begin to teach and encourage others to not bow to the critic.
This whole excercise in bravery has given me a small understanding of what it might be like to raise your hand to be a world leader, or an artist, or even an entrepreneur.
It’s an uphill battle of “what if this doesn’t work?”, “what if this works?”, and “who cares if it works, I’m going to try anyway and see what happens”.
The struggle is real, and it’s all inside ourselves.
As I’m building my online course, those 3 questions swirl around in my head and they consume more of my energy than anything else.
They have built a Great Wall of Resistance in me that I’m really struggling to find my way through. It’s not a piece I ever knew existed or thought about until I raised my hand and said I’m going to try.
I can now pin point in an instant the people who have never dared to live a brave life.
I can easily pick out the people who are the same as I used to be. They are critical, arrogant and full of judgement.
Living a brave life is a humbling journey that you don’t understand until you’ve walked in the shoes, and once you’ve been humbled by the process you would never dare to criticize someone else who’s stepped in the arena.
With hands shaking and an anxious knot in your stomach, you move forward trying to make the world a better place because you care.
P.S. If you want me to drop you a line when I have more details about the course I’m building (to help big hearted people become more whole hearted) then sign up for my private email list below. (Please be patient, because I’m dismantling an internal wall as I go).