Rising Strong

Brene Brown has very succinct ways to sum up her wonderful books which chart the progression of her work. She summaries Rising Strong as follows:

Fall. Get up. Try again.

At the end of a day in which I’ve prepared and delivered a presentation about a project which a team of us will launch on Monday, I’m reflecting on how different things feel for me in my work.

Two and half years ago I fell.

In the middle of an ambitious experiment, doing work which I was learning so much from that I couldn’t make sense of it in ways that I could help other people to hear. I had to learn some things over and over again, repeating mistakes until finally the steps I should have been taking became muscle memory. I had a patient educator in Tessy Britton. She appreciates that practice and missteps are part of the process.

I look back now at things she had written down and shared with me three years ago. They describe a dance I now know, the steps I needed to take, but which I had to learn by doing, and make wrong moves along the way. Kind of annoying, as it all makes such sense on paper, I can’t quite understand why it has been so difficult to learn.

My fall was bigger than these little trips which could be corrected. It involved anxiety, which I’m not going to dwell on as I know I’ve escaped it lightly.

I got up. Helped by some incredibly generous, wholehearted and beautiful people.

I’m trying again. I can now talk about the stuff I do and care about in ways which make sense to people. Perhaps they are more ready to hear it too. I’m surrounded by amazing people who are on this journey too, and I know we’ll hold each other steady while we learn the moves and have some little falls. I feel as though I’m rising strong.

For anyone out there who has fallen, or is feeling stuck or lost in the swampy lowlands do call out if you want to. Others have been there. We will listen. We care.