“My daughter said…’Sometimes when I’m really grateful, and things are just amazing, I close my eyes and take a picture memory so when I feel lonely or things are hard, I can remember it.’ And I think a picture memory is a lot better than our phone, taking a moment and just committing what we were feeling in that moment.” -Brené Brown, The Call to Courage
I’ve shared several quotes from A Call to Courage about joy. Incidentally, if you have Netflix, you can watch it there. The quotes below are not about joy. I may use them at some time in the future, but for now, I want to share them. This last one about joy is one of my favorites:
“Just do the joyful thing for the hell of it.”
Addressing work leadership.
“No vulnerability, no creativity. No tolerance for failure, no innovation. If you’re not willing to fail, you can’t innovate. If you’re not willing to build a vulnerable culture, you can’t create.”
“I’ve never met a single person, or interviewed a single person, in twenty years that had a joyful, wholehearted life that was miserable at work.”
Talking about important movements like #blacklivesmatter #metoo #stepup #translivesmatter:
“To not have the conversations because they make you uncomfortable is the definition of privilege. Your comfort is not at the center of this discussion.”
“The people who are targeted by racism and homophobia and heterosexism and gender bias are not responsible for initiating these conversations and building the tables for where they should be happening.”
“We have to be able to choose courage over comfort. And we have to say, “Look, I don’t know that I’m going to nail this, but I’m going to try, because what I’m sure as hell not going to do is stay quiet.”
“If you think there’s going to be real conversations in this country or in companies or organizations around equity and diversity and inclusivity while you remain comfortable, that is not going to happen.”
“When we build cultures at work where there is zero tolerance for vulnerability, where perfectionism and armor are rewarded and necessary, you can’t have these conversations. They’re not productive.”
“We end up talking about people instead of to people and it’s really…toxic.”
“Brave leaders are never silent around hard things. Our job is to excavate the unsaid…and that requires courage and vulnerability.”
Regarding vulnerability:
Vulnerability is not weakness.
“Vulnerability is the feeling we get when we feel uncertain, at risk, or emotionally exposed. I was doing work with special forces…and I asked a question, ‘Can anyone give me…a single example of courage that did not require uncertainty, risk, or emotional exposure?’ There was just silence, and I waited…a long time. A young man stood up and said, ‘Three tours, ma’am. There is no courage without vulnerability.'”
“It’s okay if you’ve got crazy stuff going on. Join the club. We all do…just don’t offload your hard stuff on other people.”
We can’t go it alone. We are neurobiologically hardwired for connection with other people. In the absence of connection, love, and belonging, there is always suffering. You can’t go it alone. (If you could, I would have found a way by now. As an introvert who loves humanity but who’s mas o menos on people, I would have found a way.)
“You measure vulnerability by the amount of courage to show up and be seen when you can’t control the outcome.”
"It's not the critic who counts. It's not the man who points out where the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done it differently. The credit belongs to the person who's actually in the arena, whose face is marred with dust, and sweat, and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again, and again, and again, and who, in the end, while he may know the triumph of high achievement, at least when he fails, he does so daring greatly." -Teddy Roosevelt, 1910 Speech
“There’s my life before that quote, and my life after that quote.”
under1000skies 