brave

[ breyv ]

adjective, brav·er, brav·est.

noun

verb (used with object), braved, brav·ing.

I’m writing “I am brave” every-single-day in my journal at the moment.  Am I brave?  Well, in somethings yes I am.  In others I am absolute chicken shit. I can face the fear and do it anyway, with an assortment of things, yet when it comes to some of those massive life changing or defining moment, I’m like that scared child unwilling to let go of their mothers hand as they walk into the school grounds.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been faced with some of those sliding door moments, and yes, I’ve been brave.  I didn’t even realise till someone said it to me this morning “that was really brave” they said.  Slap. Hit me with a tonne of force. Yes, I was bloody brave!

Maybe this journalling thing actually works.

Maybe I was simply ready to let go,  forge ahead and step into being who I was meant to be.

Maybe it’s a part of growing up.

Maybe I don’t need to question it.

 

The truth is, nobody is coming to rescue us.  Nobody is our hero.  We need to be our own Superhero, take chances, risk things and be brave.

I spend lots of time working with my coaching clients and speaking on the topic of Confidence.  Is there a link between Confidence and Being Brave?

Hell to the yes!!!

I could write a whole book on Confidence and I promise I will do, but I’ll boil it down simply here.

Confidence is how you feel about yourself inside and out. 

Confidence includes your belief about your talents, personality traits, skills, looks and so much more. So yes, when you’re feeling confident that impacts your ability to be brave.

There’s a direct relationship between your confidence and how you show up in the world.

It’s a skill.

You can learn it.

It’s a muscle you can exercise.

It’s a foundation you can build on.

It’s a circle (cue Elton John singing Circle of Life) when you do something that helps to grow your confidence muscle, you then gain the confidence to do more, be more – that then continues to grow your confidence.

Even the smallest of things have an impact that you may not fully understand at the time.

Being brave enough to sit at a cafe alone and work on a blog post – for example, might help your confidence get to a level where you can walk into a networking event alone.

But what if I do something brave and I fail?

Unless it’s something like skydiving (which for the record I don’t think is brave I think it’s bloody madness) chances are your act of bravery won’t kill or harm you or anyone else.

Say you use Mel Robbins 5 Second Rule, get brave and cold call your dream client.  Shite.  They picked up.  They didn’t have time to hear your pitch. Don’t sob into the phone. Ask permission to call on them again at a more convenient time, or send them something.

The world didn’t end because you made the call and didn’t get the result you wanted.  You still got a result.  You still exercised your confidence muscle.  You were brave.

What can you do today to make yourself feel brave?