Some Days Are Daring Greatly

There are moment in our lives when we hear something we need to hear, when we are ready to hear it.  When this happens, it could be serendipity. Or it could be the handiwork of God.

It happened to me this morning. I heard something that will carry me through today.

Today I woke early and somehow stumbled on a YouTube video featuring Brene Brown.  Dr. Brown is a researcher, professor, author, and speaker. Awareness of Brene Brown is a gift someone gave me years ago.

Her words satisfied a longing in me today. I am on the back side of OOTW. You know, One Of Those Weeks. We all have them. Brene's talk (yes, I have decided to be on a first-name-basis with Brene) was on having the courage to be creative. But creative courage was not exactly my takeaway today.

Her talk made me think of the whole process of making decisions, long reached decisions. Most people can relate to the feelings that emerge during these decision-making times. For me, the overriding feeling is fear; not so much fear of making decisions but fear of living with the choices. Obviously not referring to what to have for dinner.

What makes the decision-making process beautiful are the people who lighten the load. The ones, as Brene says, who believe in what we are doing and why we are doing it. The ones who pick us up and dust us off; who call us brave. The ones who journey up the stairs with us.

What makes the process difficult are the critical voices from the sidelines, include the voices in our own heads. I have dubbed that voice in my head my "left shoulder voice." It always seems to be perched right there waiting to squash anything requiring sustained courage. These voices make us freeze when we are at the bottom of our metaphorical stairs.

Here is the quote that Brene Brown said changed her life. It is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, with several dot.dot.dot ellipses:

It's 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 person who is in the arena. Whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly ... 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 ...

The quote that I needed to hear today was not Mr. Roosevelt's, great as it is.  The quote that resonated for me was Brene's. It was advise for those damn critical voices:

If you are not in the arena getting your butt kicked, I'm not interested in your feedback.

Whoa.

What I am hearing in Brene's message is that it is not necessary to stop caring about what others say and feel. That could potentially turn us into The Walking Numb.

But we can be aware that sometimes we need to say to those voices, especially the ones over our left shoulder:

I see you. I hear you.

But I need to climb these stairs anyway.

Thank you, God, for serendipity.

photo from leonie'slonging.org