Becoming the best version of ourselves requires us to dare greatly. We are called to lean into our fears and our vulnerabilities, our doubts and excuses and the “not enough” stories we tell ourselves; to open our minds and hearts and be willing to face both our light and our shadow.
Conscious self-leadership begins and ends with self-awareness. Self-awareness starts with curiosity and the willingness to lean into our vulnerable, messy, flawesome (awesome + flawed) humanity.
It ends in taking the complete and unconditional responsibility for our state of being; for our thoughts and emotions, and how they impact our resilience and well-being, our mindset and our ability to live our best life.
It requires patience, tenacity and courage. And, as Brene Brown puts it, you get courageous by taking courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.
One small brave, authentic action at a time.
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.’ - Theodore Roosevelt Jr.