Life Shift - 4 Share Your Humanity

Between the extreme positions of being bum and hero lies the middle ground of being simply human. People comfortable with being in the middle are free from the over-powering effects of depression (never good enough) on one side and anxiety (needs for perfection) on the other side of the self-esteem continuum. This short essay will provide you guidelines for how to share your humanity with others. The lesson starts with the need to laugh at ourselves...for "we are all Bozo’s" on this bus called life on planet earth.

Dr. Brene Brown is a Social Work Research Professor at the University of Houston. In 2012 she wrote the New York Times #1 bestselling book Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead.  

Brown defines vulnerability as basically uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. In her book and lectures, Brown shares insight into her own journey of being afraid to risk being not having all the answers. She goes to share how her inability to lean into the discomfort of vulnerability limited the fullness of those important experiences that are wrought with uncertainty: love, belonging, trust, joy, and creativity.  

Dr. Brown uses a speech by Theodore Roosevelt delivered in Paris France in 1910 as the essence of her suggestions on the steps to daring greatly. The speech, sometimes referred to as "The Man in the Arena", credits the man in the arena as the real strong person to be admired. The speech's famous line clarifies the bravest of persons is "whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly." To be a critic of others is not the person who counts. It's the person who best knows the necessity of both victory and defeat for showing up each day in the arena of life that defines vulnerability. 

Your focus for today is to give thought to how you want to show up knowing you will have victories and defeats along the way. And yes, there will be critics in the crowd who will make fun of you when once in a while when you stumble or fall.  

So, you might as well laugh at yourself and enjoy being silly when it is appropriate to fool around. Theodore Roosevelt a century ago encouraged everyday people to be brave and to embrace their humanity. For the intellectuals in Paris, Europe, and back in the United States, Teddy reminds all of us that the truly great individual is the one comfortable enough to be vulnerable and risk failing. Those that show up, knowing there will be highs and lows, and people laughing at us, were the ones to be respected and admired.