Daring Greatly…

Oh, the joys of a broken laptop! When you’re a writer, being without your laptop feels like torture, seriously. Sure, I more than any other option love the feeling of pen on paper, but writing a full blog post on an iPad? Not quite the same. Hence, the long stretch of silence since my last post.

If you’ve been here before, you probably already know about my deep love for Oprah. My soul sister, as I like to call her. I had every intention of starting this year fresh, keeping my stress levels low, embracing a calmer, more intentional life. But life had other plans. Starting a new career has thrown me into a whirlwind of uncertainty, self-doubt, and inevitable stress. Only natural, I guess.

Not too long ago, I found myself watching an episode of Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday (the name says it all—it’s a must-watch). And in the middle of my mental chaos, I remembered something. Years ago, I had bought a book after seeing it mentioned on one of Oprah’s Book Club episodes. Daring Greatly by Brené Brown.

If you’ve read my blogs before, you already know, I suck at vulnerability. And from what I’ve learned, most people do. Actually, let me be more honest: I don’t just struggle with it, I actively avoid it. Since a young age, I’ve always equated vulnerability with weakness, and I do not do weakness well. But reading makes me feel grounded. It teaches me immensely and brings me back to myself. And since I was starting to feel a little lost, not knowing everything at work, missing my friends and family, feeling off—I figured it was time to finally read Daring Greatly.

Because I’m all about self-help, therapy, anything that makes being human a little bit easier.

Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston who has spent the past sixteen years studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. One of her TED Talks, The Power of Vulnerability, is one of the top five most-viewed talks of all time. So when I found out she was a vulnerability expert, I knew I had to dive into this book. If anyone could convince me that vulnerability wasn’t a terrifying abyss, it was her.

And let me tell you, this book is eye-opening.

Brené writes about her own struggle with vulnerability. How, just like me, she once believed it meant weakness. But what she discovered through years of research is that vulnerability isn’t something we can avoid, it’s the very thing that makes life meaningful. Love, career, parenting, friendships, personal growth—everything we do requires vulnerability.

For years, just hearing the word vulnerable made me uneasy. It felt heavy. Dark. Like something to be avoided at all costs. But through Brené’s words, I see it differently. Vulnerability is courage. It’s putting yourself out there even when you don’t know the outcome. It’s speaking your truth, even when your voice shakes. It’s opening yourself up to love, even when there’s a chance of heartbreak. It’s showing up, trying, risking failure, because life requires risk.

And I think that’s what has always stopped me, the fear of failure. The fear of rejection. The fear of looking foolish. But when we let fear stop us from being vulnerable, we also stop ourselves from truly living.

To sum it up, without giving away too much for those who want to read it, Daring Greatly breaks vulnerability down in a way that actually makes sense. Not in a way that makes you feel like you need a psychology degree to understand it, but in a way that clicks. And the reality is, vulnerability is unavoidable. If we want to live fully, we have to be willing to step into the arena, to show up, to risk getting hurt.

It reminds me of one of my favourite quotes by Theodore Roosevelt, which Brené references in the book:

“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 or defeat!”

That’s what vulnerability is. Getting into the arena, knowing you might fail, but doing it anyway. Because that’s life.

And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that we’re not alone in our fears. So many people feel the same way, afraid to be seen, afraid to take risks, afraid of what others might think. But do we really want to let those fears dictate how we live? Do we want to reach the end of our lives and regret all the things we didn’t do because we were too scared to try?

I’ve been working on this whole vulnerability thing for a while now. And let’s be real, I spent years avoiding it. But now? Now, I’m trying. And that’s all we can do, try. And if we don’t get it right the first time? Try again.

So, wish me luck. Because this whole being vulnerable thing? Yeah. It’s a work in progress.

Peace, Love & dare greatly xoxo