Ordinary Courage

The following is from Brene Brown’s “The Gifts of Imperfection.”  I am reading it for a third time right now.  Thought this passage might speak to some of you:

After interviewing people about the truths of their lives– their strengths and their struggles– I realized that courage is one of the most important qualities that Wholehearted people have in common.  And not just any kind of courage; I found that Wholeheartedness requires ordinary courage.  Here’s what I mean…

The root of the word courage is cor– the Latin word for heart.  In one of its earliest forms, the word courage had a very different definition than it does today.  Courage originally meant “To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.”  Over time this definition has changed, and, today, courage is more synonymous with being heroic.  Heroics is important and we certainly need heroes, but I think we’ve lost touch with the idea that speaking honestly and openly about who we are, about what we’re feeling, and about our experiences (good and bad) is the definition of courage.  Heroics is often about putting our life on the line.  Ordinary courage is about putting our vulnerability on the line.  In today’s world, that’s pretty extraordinary.

Let’s all vow to put our vulnerability on the line today.  Just watch what transpires and shifts for you.

For more from Brene Brown, you can view her blog Ordinary Courage.  I highly recommend reading her older posts and watching her video on vulnerability.

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Ordinary Courage

My sister sent me a link to Brene Brown’s weekly blog- Ordinary Courage.  This is a woman after my own heart- teaching about finding life through the imperfections and being true to who you are.  Her post yesterday is now hanging on my fridge as a reminder.  Thought I should share with each of you…

I have a post-it note above my desk with this reminder on it: “At the end of the day and at the end of my life, I want to know that I contributed more than I criticized.” It’s a touchstone for me when I’m feeling vulnerable about sharing my work in a world where it’s easy to attack and ridicule. It’s also helpful when I find myself using perfection, sarcasm, and criticism to protect myself or to discharge my own discomfort. I also turn to this quote from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech Citizenship In A Republic, delivered at the Sorbonne (1910): The Man in the Arena “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; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; 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.” I’m constantly reminding myself that I can’t wait until I’m perfect or bulletproof to walk into the arena because that’s never going to happen. We just have show up and let ourselves be seen – that’s my definition of “daring greatly.”

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