The purpose of this blog is deeply personal, I don’t envision anyone else reading these words, let alone finding them useful. I simply need a space to put down my thoughts, challenges, dreams and triumphs. A place that I can revisit in the future, a place where I can be completely anonymous and therefore afford to write sincerely and unabashedly.
I expect I will be writing on topics that overlap the self-developmental and business/management realms. But the main theme behind every post will be the theme of Daring Greatly. Cue flagship quote of this blog:
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; 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.
Theodore Roosevelt
I mean, WOW. Certain ideas can really speak to you if you’re in the right place in life. Two things happened to me simultaneously that forced me to “Level Up”.
- An adversity, or somewhat painful experience that made me question my self-worth
- Reading The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown
I remember chapter after chapter bringing waves of epiphanies and eureka moments that were plunging me into the depths of self-realization. #thisissome. I wouldn’t be able to do justice in summarizing Brene’s work, but it explores some deep topics (shame, joy, resilience, self-compassion, fear, courage, authenticity). This is different to much of the self-help / leadership space where the advice is focused on “How-to”, “Top 10 ways..” and simply behavioral changes.
Let’s cut to the chase and get really corny; life is incredibly short. Every day is an opportunity to Show Up in your truest self. To ask the tough questions, to show compassion and empathy to the humans in your life. To do the creative things. To fail again and again, pushing the frontiers of your capability and maybe eventually at the end of your life, be able to say “At least I failed while daring greatly”.