There’s nothing more life affirming than getting your ass kicked, and being OK with it. It’s the simple act of showing up, of not knowing if the outcome will go your way, and participating anyway.
It’s about making yourself vulnerable, knowing it, and doing it anyway.
Get in the arena and fight, or lay down and die.
The latter is exactly what I did when I got out of hospital after 3 months of fighting. Yep, you read that right. I just opted out. I don’t know why, but it turns out that many people do it following big life transitions.
It’s been a long road since then, and I’m only just wrapping my head around all the research in this space, but I want to start by talking about vulnerability.
The Power of Vulnerability
There’s a certain rush that comes with it, not quite like jumping out of a plane, but close enough without putting your life in danger. It’s the rush of fear and loss of control – which is particularly hard on us Type A people!
Vulnerability is exactly what Dr. Brené Brown has been advocating for since spoke at TedxHouston in 2010. Since then, her talk “The Power of Vulnerability” has become one of the top five most viewed TED talks ever, with 44+ million views.
Brené, a research professor at the University of Houston, has spent more than two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. She is the author of five #1 New York Times bestsellers. And she has recently filmed a talk on Netflix, “The Call to Courage,” which was launched in April 2019.
With a great sense of humour, Brené talks about choosing courage over comfort, and I couldn’t agree more. I highly recommend you find the time to watch these videos, because as Brené says: “I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life. And when we make the choice to dare greatly, we sign up to get our asses kicked. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time.”
So thank you Brené, and yes, I too choose to get my ass kicked.
Related content: Read Moving On article My Story
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