I had to smile the other day when my eldest daughter posted the following image on our family WhatsApp group:
And it made me acutely aware again of how ‘hard-hitting’ adulthood can be – even if my daughter proclaimed this fact with humour – I think we can all agree that adulthood requires a ‘mental toughness.’
Our mental toughness is most often eroded by our fear of failure – and here is where I appreciate the idea of not seeing failure as something that sets me back, but rather to embrace failure (making mistakes or being unsuccessful at something) by perceiving it as ‘failing forward’ – a concept that I picked up from world-renowned leadership guru, John Maxwell.
Viewing failure as something that takes you forward, creates courage to ‘get in the ring’ and do what you need to do! If you get knocked down, know that it is okay – there is only one way to get from down, and that is ‘UP!’
Our source of resilience lies in valuing our own worth.
You were created and born to be you! And therein lies your unique value!
You may ask, ‘Do I need to have it ‘all together’ to be confident?’ The answer is simply, ‘NO!!!’
None of us, or what we do, are perfect – so train yourself to see yourself (and what you do) as a ‘work in progress’ so that you can enjoy the ride!
Being OKAY with not being perfect, gives you the courage to ‘get out of the cheap seats’ and ‘get in the ring’!
The ‘cheap seats’ are where everybody ‘fits in’ – however, for you to BELONG and impact your world in the way you should, you need to ‘get into the ring!’
What we need to do is to understand that the opposite of Belonging is Fitting In!
Dr Brené Brown helps us distinguish between these two:
True belonging does not require you to change who you are – it requires you to be who you are, and that is VULNERABLE.
Vulnerability is NOT a weakness – it is, in fact, BRAVERY.
I leave you with a link to the insightful teachings of Dr Brené Brown on the Power of Vulnerability, Bravery.