When you show up and be seen – “you are going to get your arse kicked” – Brene Brown
I just finished watching the talk “The Call to Courage” with Brené Brown on Netflix (1). To a packed audience, she gives a really inspiring talk that is full of good humour, honesty and examples from her family life about courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy. I highly recommend it.
What I particularly loved is how she described what happened after her Ted talk went viral. She went online and started reading the comments. Troll comment after troll comment later, she couldn’t take it and went into a Downtown Abbey and icecream pity party. Later, she started googling about Downton Abbey and came across a quote by Theodore Roosevelt.
“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.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
She said there was her life before this quote and after this quote. She decided that she would live in the arena, that she would be brave, show up and take chances.
It’s a strong reminder to step in the arena. Are you in the arena?
Footnotes
1)Netflix – The Call to Courage – Brené Brown
Photo source: Netflix.com