Me and Brene Brown
I posted a question on social media the other day about the advice that you would give to your 18yr old self in 3 words. This question got more comments than most other posts with women eager to share their hard-earned wisdom.
So many of the comments were things like….
Chase your dreams
Listen to your intuition
Follow your heart
Take chances
Believe in yourself.
Have more courage.
Isn’t this advice that is still relevant today, no matter how we are? Shouldn’t we be taking our own “Old Chicks” medicine?
When we have a dream or a desire to start something new or transition into the unknown, fear and doubt often take over and keep us paralyzed from moving forward. We struggle with how to find the courage to do the thing.
I was reminded of something that Brene Brown wrote in one of her books about the original definition of courage as “coming from the heart”. (As an aside, I’m a huge Brene fan. She is on the top of my dream podcast guest list. I visualize she and I doing an interview all the time. So if anyone knows Brene please make the intro. LOL!!). I digress.
Being the word nerd that I am, I dove into the etymology and origin of courage. It is derived from the Latin and French words “cor” meaning heart, and the original definition of courage was “to follow what’s on your heart” and “to be guided by one's inner voice”.
Mic drop!!!
To find the courage to move past fear and doubt we must simply listen to our hearts and allow the passion and excitement of our desire to keep pulling us forward.
We must pay more attention to our inner voice than the naysaying chatter of our minds.
And for me, this is where the power of visualization comes in. When I am in a place of fear or doubt about something I want, I create a mental image of me actually doing the thing. Hence the visualization of Brene and I. My mind says…. “It’s never going to happen”, “she’s too big for your little podcast” “why would she want to talk to you?”. Creating the mental picture of her and I together gets me back in the excitement of why I started the podcast and all I want to share to inspire women to create their kick-ass next chapters. It’s really quite powerful in keeping me moving towards what sometimes feels impossible.
What is your heart pulling you towards for your next chapter?
And just to remind you that there are 30 years between ages 50 and 80. It’s actually the longest chapter of our lives. Whatever you dream about is possible. You are not too old and It’s not too late.
Jennifer