Brené Brown’s Call to Courage
1–800-VULNERABLE
There are days when you wait for a call and it never comes. And then there are days like today, where you take a call our of curiosity and it wakes you up from your mindless routines. I am grateful that this morning when I scrolled through my Netflix account I decided to say yes and press play to Brené Brown’s Call to Courage.
Here are some of my favorite things from her talk:
1. Peanut Butter & Downton Abbey
There are days when all we really need is some Peanut Butter & Downton Abbey. A safe space for us to deal with our dark thoughts and feelings. Being courageous does not mean that you will be ready to go all-day, everyday. Sometimes, being courageous means that you are brave enough to ask for help when you need it, and letting your friends and family be there for you when you are going through something.
2. God is Good
When we reached our limit, trust that God will find another way to sustain our spirit. When the world tells you that you are not worth it, He assures you that you are in His own way. Brené was going down a rabbit hole after she finished Downton Abbey. She Googled any and all things related to the series, somehow she decided to search “Who was the president during Downton Abbey” which lead her to Theodore Roosevelt, and lead her to the quote that then changed her life.
Brené said that her life is divided into two sections, her life before she read this quote and the life she lead after reading this quote.
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 at 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
3. Vulnerability is NOT About Winning or Losing
Vulnerability is having the courage to show up, when you can’t control the outcome. To choose courage, is to abandon comfort — and showing up to do the thing that scares you, counts more than winning or losing — because it means that you are facing your fears, and taking steps to conquer them, one moment at a time.
Also read the book, Daring Greatly (by the same person)! It’s a deep dive on the research that Brené has done on shame and vulnerability, and it is a book that will make you say “No”, “Shut Up” and “Get Out of My Head” —because it really does feel like she is in your head, and she sees through all of the armor that you’ve built to protect yourself. But it is also a book that will help you understand that you are not alone in this world, there are many others who are experiencing and struggling with the same things that you are are, and that it is important to start building each other up instead of tearing each other down.
