Courage

Brene Brown says “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” Letting ourselves be seen I hear you exclaim! Who wants to let themselves be seen?! That’s kind of a fate worse than death, I hear you scream!!

Most of us don’t see ourselves as being courageous human beings. The majority of us do not like to be in the limelight. We don’t like to be seen because we don’t like the feeling of being judged. And sadly we live in a world where people are always very quick to judge.

Showing up and letting ourselves be seen is such a daunting thought for so many of us that we spend our lives hiding in the background. And man, that’s just doing yourself such a disservice.

I absolutely love Brene Brown. I think she’s such an inspiring human being. She has a video entitled The Man in the Arena and I’m sure I’ve shared it before. If you haven’t seen it, the link is at the end of this article – please go watch it. If you’ve watched it before – watch it again!

I’m not going to give you much more about the content of this video, because I really want you to take the time to watch it. It’s not very long, so set aside 20 minutes and enjoy it – you WILL come away so inspired!

Back to us being courageous… This is going to sound a little odd, but it takes courage to be courageous. To allow ourselves to be seen, means that we need to make ourselves vulnerable. It’s about allowing yourself or giving yourself permission to step forward and take your moment, take your bow on the world stage. And yes, there are going to be those who will judge but remember that their negative reaction is not a reflection of who you are, it is very much a reflection of who they are. It is the fearful person, who cannot ever imagine herself or himself standing up in a crowd and being seen; who keeps themselves small and flies just enough below the radar that they never get noticed; it’s them, they pass judgement. They find fault with others. They think those who allow themselves to be stripped naked and bear their souls, are the crazy ones; are the fools who don’t know what they’re doing.

Believe me, none of us actually know what we’re doing. We’re all stumbling through our life but it is within that stumbling that you need to dig deep and be courageous and show up for yourself. Because in showing up for yourself, you do move forward in your life. You do also get the win, sometimes very small, sometimes amazingly big. But… you’ll never know which it will be, if you don’t even try.

I have a sign above my front door that reads : The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. And I read it so often, because it inspires me. It inspires me every day to make myself vulnerable. I’m constantly creating something that I can offer to others. It’s always all my own work. All my courses that I’ve ever written, are mine. I haven’t copied from anyone else, I have emulated anyone else. I have trusted my guides to walk with me in the direction I want to go and for the most part, I have been really successful.

I always tell my clients, create something that comes from within yourself and just do it. Don’t worry about what other people are doing – it doesn’t affect your work. You don’t want to be walking behind, regurgitating something that someone else has created. You want to be evolving in your lane, doing your thing. You’ll be amazed at how good it makes you feel. When you can conquer your fears of what other people will think and just get on with it, you’ll be amazed at how successful your life will be. You don’t need permission from anyone to be you. You do however, need to give yourself permission to be you and once granted, I’m afraid you can’t go back. You just can’t let yourself down. Because what does matter is what you think of yourself and it shows in everything that you do. Other people pick up on it and when you have negative opinions of yourself, others will follow suit.

So yes, please do enjoy the video – there is so much for you to take away with you. Here it is :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-JXOnFOXQk

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