Why daring greatly matters

Here’s how bad-ass Brene Brown is:

she takes a topic like shame, one that no one really wants to talk about even though they know, deep down, that it’s very prevalent in their lives, and she makes it okay to talk about, examine deeply, and work through.

It takes a special kind of bad-assery to make that happen, and her latest book, Daring Greatly, is no exception to that. It’s an honest look at the default responses that we have to shame, how we bury looking at those responses, and how we can stop.

It’s devoid of self-help 1-2-3 step plans for never again having an imperfect moment. It’s a book about releasing the impulse to strive, strive, strive, and instead look at how to truly be exactly who you are, where you are, owning all parts of that.

This is the piece that is SO important: owning all parts. OWNING all parts. Owning ALL parts.

Brene Brown gets it--she gets that it’s the very culture of the self-help industry, always prodding us to be “ever better” that feeds directly into the shame cycles of “not enough.”

It’s in alignment with what I try to express about courage--that practicing courage does not mean disowning fear. It does not mean rejecting inner critics and telling them to shut up and go away.

This is a book about having richer and riskier conversations in the name of forging true connections. This is a book about using connection with yourself in order to forge connections with others.If you’re not familiar with Brene’s work, check out our interviews, here and here, and her first TED talk, here.

Then head here to get your copy of Daring Greatly.