I love Brené Brown, her messages, her books and her videos. I refer to her all the time because she really hits home on what is important in life.
This past week I watched her latest presentation on Netflix – The Call to Courage, which is all about vulnerability.
“Vulnerability is not knowing victory or defeat, it’s understanding the necessity of both. It’s engaging. It’s being all in.” – Brené Brown, Professor, Author, Speaker
She made a comment during her talk about reaching the end of our life and realizing we did not or may not have shown up, and if we had, how things could have been or would have been different.
“Sometimes the bravest and most important thing we can do is just show up.” – Brené Brown
It struck me that so many of us live in fear and specifically, in fear of failure. It is natural because we are conditioned from an early age that we do not want to be a failure. That failure is a sign of weakness. A sign of vulnerability.
And at the first sign of failure, what do we do? We quit!
We choose mediocrity and comfort. And we all know that real growth occurs outside the comfort zone.
So we end up holding ourselves back, because, to show up, we would have to be courageous, get outside our comfort zone, be vulnerable and risk failure.
As Brené Brown says, we hold ourselves back from getting in the “arena where we could get our ass kicked.” But that is exactly where we want and need to be.
We need to get our ass kicked. Because it will lead to fulfillment.
I got my ass kicked recently and had to deal with some pretty ugly stuff, but now as I look back it was exactly what had to happen. I had to be more vulnerable and along the way I became courageous and more confident in how I really want to live my life.
So to experience life to the fullest, you have to show up. That means being vulnerable to yourself, to others and to failure, but understanding that it also means being true to yourself and to what you can be.
You will amaze yourself, because then and only then, you will tap into your hidden potential.
Say these Brené Brown words to yourself every day: “I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life.”
I strongly recommend you watch her Netflix talk as you soon as you can.
It is truly inspirational filled with humour and empathy and is all about being brave, vulnerable and showing up.
Let me know your thoughts if you have already watched the talk or if you plan to in the near future.