Daring Greatly

Daring Greatly
Daring Greatly

I am just a little bit in love (ok, quite a lot in love, really…) with Brené Brown – having been introduced to her books by the seriously wonderful Electric Woman that is Nikki Armytage.

And so now, I am Daring Greatly – or trying to – on a daily basis.  I have had enough all the ‘all talk but no trousers’ routine that I’ve been playing around with for a while – so here I am – trying to become the best me I can become, because life is just far too short to be mediocre.

Brené is a hard task master, but her books have inspired me – to really take a look at who I am and what I’m doing – as a person, as a partner, as a parent and as a colleague – and so I’m trying to work her process a little more into my day to day life.

I’m reading (even more than before), making notes, smiling – and doing… Including owning up to my own failures – hence the new SFD page on the left hand side.

I think owning my story, writing my own shitty first drafts, and then rumbling with the truth is the very best thing I can do for me right now.

I have no idea what will come of this – but I am super super excited to be Daring Greatly…

Being honest

Maybe leaning in is actually about being honest – being brave enough to be honest.  Maybe it’s about stopping feeling like I have to ‘do-it-all’ because, actually, I’ve realised that I don’t want to – and that doesn’t make me a failure.

Maybe being honest could be about making me and other people happier? Maybe I could say that I didn’t want the management position office job. That it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.  Maybe I could say that I wanted to be my own boss.  That I wanted to help other people, to little by little make the world a nicer place for the individual people in it?

Maybe I could say that for me – leaning in, is about leaning in to me – and my honest desires?  To creating something that I’m proud of. To creating something small, and beautiful, and meaningful – even if it’s not based around 40hrs a week in an office.

Maybe being honest is just about saying no. No, I do not want this anymore.  I did want it. And I used to enjoy it.  And I’ve had some great times.  But not so much now. So, no… I have changed. And so for me now, to move along into the next stage of me – I need to say no to a whole pile of stuff that I thought I had to say yes to.

But I don’t.  I can be brave. And by being brave, I am being honest.

Welcome to my mid-life crisis

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It started as a musical ‘crisis’… and I hoped I’d get away with that… Then it was some books that reminded me of who I was…

Now – I can’t avoid it. I am in the grips of my very own mid-life crisis – and you know what? I love it…

My whole vision of what ‘having it all’ means is in the process of changing – and it’s letting me own up to who I really am, and what I really want to do – and it’s different to where I’ve been headed.

So, it’s not so much a desperate cry for help. More of a starting to sing, in the hope that others will come along and join in with me. This is down to me. And I am excited.

Welcome to my mid-life crisis.