Hope To See You In The Arena

Hope To See You In The Arena

July 26, 2012

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Reposted by Amy Johnson

I've Noticed... the insight of Dr. Brene Brown, Ph.D. I recently stumbled upon her 2010 and 2012 TED talks. When I say stumbled upon, I really mean it. I was actually searching the internet for something entirely different when I came across Dr. Brown's talks. Everything happens for a reason, right? I clicked out of curiosity, but now I know I was meant to hear her words, both for my own personal understanding and to share at least this highlight with all of you. The subject matter of these talks was vulnerability and shame. Dr. Brown's insight and candor made listening to her speak on such ugly topics bearable, and her good humor made it enjoyable. We all experience, to one degree or another, feelings of vulnerability, and most of us avoid this ucky feeling whenever possible. Dr. Brown pointed out that when we avoid feeling vulnerable, that is when we numb ourselves so as to not feel it, or we avoid really putting ourselves out there so that we won't really be judged, we also lose the joy, the happiness, and the courage that we want to have and be.

Dr. Brown ended her 2012 TED talk with a beautiful word picture using a quote from Teddy Roosevelt's well-known "The Man in the Arena". She spoke of how we all have this fantasy that when we get it all together, when we are thin enough, organized enough, schooled enough, ________ enough... then we will walk into the arena. Then we will stand before our peers ready to be seen because we will be perfect, we will be bullet proof. But then she goes on to say something very profound. She says, "Even if you got as perfect as you could and as bullet proof as you could possibly muster, when you got in there, that's not what we want to see. We want you to go in; we want to be with you and across from you, and we just want for ourselves and the people we care about, and the people we work with to dare greatly."

I for one can admit that I have stood just outside of the door to the arena. My mind racing with all of the tasks and to do's that, once accomplished, will grant me the worthiness to enter. I can also see with profound gratitude that had I ever accomplished that elusive to do list and then thrown the door wide open, and then proceeded to stride into your arena with the confidence of perfection and the conceit of a bullet proof vest I would have had my heart broken into a million pieces, because I would have been untouchable. I would not have been able to really connect with anyone, which is all any of us want. We want to be seen, really seen. We want to be valued, really valued. We want to be Noticed, really Noticed.

And so here I go... I am as prepared as I can be. Am I perfect? LOL. Am I bullet proof? Nope. Am I opening the door, and walking into the arena? Absolutely! I hope to see you there!!!

"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

You can watch both the 2010 TEDxHouston talk and the 2012 TED talk of Dr. Brown's at: