My 19-year-old daughter, Abby, leaves for the Amazon jungles of Brazil tomorrow on a proselyting mission for our church. This brings up a lot of emotions for me for two reasons:
- I was the exact same age when I went to Brazil for the same reason 25 years ago, and it was a marvelous, life-changing experience for me. I am thrilled for her.
- Although she is a brilliant, mature, and driven adult perfectly capable of this experience, I am terrified! She is still my little girl who will be living 4,458 miles away (yes, I Googled it and mapped my route in case of an emergency).
How can I be thrilled and terrified at the same time?
A week ago, Abby and I spent a day just the two of us and had a very touching and personal conversation that I will never forget. She shared an experience with me that she recently had on a retreat with the other Business Student Ambassadors for her university. A mentor encouraged them to BE WISE, BE BRAVE, & BE FUN! We talked about all three, but we lingered on the idea of being BRAVE as it seemed fitting for the adventure she is about to embark on.
When was the last time someone encouraged you to be BRAVE? Maybe it was when you were a kid about to get on the bus for the first day of school, try out for the soccer team, or work up the courage to talk to that person you had a crush on. It probably wasn’t when you were an adult. WHY? It takes more bravery to face the challenges of adulthood than any of those childhood examples. WHY DON’T WE ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER TO BE BRAVE MORE OFTEN? How different would your current situation be if you had been encouraged to be BRAVE more often and acted on that courage?
Here are three tips to be more BRAVE and grow your COURAGE right now. You got this!
- Embrace Vulnerability: Acknowledge your fears and understand that it’s okay to feel vulnerable. By accepting vulnerability, you can better face situations that scare you and grow from them. Practice self-compassion and remind yourself that being brave doesn’t mean being fearless, but rather acting despite your fears.
- ACT “AS-IF”: Write down and visualize all the traits and characteristics of the person you aspire to be and just START ACTING AS IF you were already that person. If you do this enough, you will find that the shoe fits because YOU ARE THAT PERSON!
- Set a Small Achievable Goal and Celebrate It: Bigger successes are usually just an accumulation of a lot of smaller wins. Combine this with embracing vulnerability and acting “as if” to trigger a domino effect leading to much bigger victories along the way.
My last words to you here will be the same last words I share with Abby as she leaves me for 18 months (insert cry face emoji)… BE BRAVE!!
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