Michele Woodward

Powerful Coaching. Powerful Results.

bravery

What Brave Really Looks Like

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It’s easy to forget, in the rush of the day-to-day, what brave really looks like – so let me remind you of one or two things:

Sometimes brave simply looks like getting out of bed in the morning.

Sure, it’s brave to try something new. Admitting you have no idea how to do it is very brave.

Brave also looks like voicing an opinion.

Or respectfully disagreeing.

Or admitting you haven’t made your mind up yet.

Brave is being a true and kind friend to yourself.

Brave is extending your hand to a stranger.

And, brave is standing up for the rights of a stranger.

Anyone who creates art – using paint, clay, stone, words, numbers, performance, color, texture, shape – is incredibly brave.

Brave looks like absolutely loving the body you have.

And it’s brave to know you need to change something – and taking the steps toward that change.

Listening is brave.

Loving is brave.

Breathing is brave.

That means you, my friend, are so very brave.

Remember this the next time you have doubt or wonder where your confidence has gone.

It really hasn’t gone anywhere – you just forgot for a minute exactly how brave you are every single day.

 

Like No One’s Watching

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Sing Concept Clipped Cards And Lights

My daughter leaned over to whisper in my ear, “See that girl? Third from the right?” I nodded. “She’s awesome.”

We were watching a showcase of performing arts talent on my daughter’s college campus. Seated outside on a glorious fall day, we’d seen students doing modern dance and step. We’d heard a capella renditions of songs by Swift and Sinatra. And now we were getting ready to hear a gospel group sing.

The young woman my daughter pointed out was bespectacled with long, swaying braids. In the second song of the set, she took the microphone and moved one step in front of the group. The leader raised his hands and the keyboardist began to play.

I was ready for something astounding – hadn’t my daughter said this girl was awesome?

When the young woman opened her mouth to sing, I was a little mystified. You see, it was a traditional call-and-response piece and she was taking the lead.

But her vocal range was probably just about four notes, and two of those gave her some trouble.

She was not the most tonally gifted singer I’ve ever heard.

The audience began to fidget in their seats.

But she kept going. And her group kept following her, clapping and swaying in time with the beat.

She’d sing out her line, the rest of the singers harmonized along. She sang with passion, with attention, and with joy.

And she was totally in the moment.

Pretty soon a huge grin took up all the space on my face. Because I finally knew what I was seeing.

I was witnessing a raw display of powerful courage.

This young woman, pushing her glasses up on her nose, was singing her heart out in front of five hundred people.

In front of many of her classmates. Their parents. Their grandparents.

She was even being filmed.

Doing something many of us would shrink from doing if we couldn’t do it absolutely perfectly.

Yep, there she was, standing up in front of her entire community, doing something she loved.

Doing it as if no one was watching.

Doing it for the sheer joy of doing it.

I leaned over to my daughter and said, “She’s the bravest person I’ve seen in a long time.”

My daughter replied, “See? I told you she was awesome.”

 

 

Why Being Brave Matters

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Chinese Man Standing In Front Of TankI recently read that corporate America has $1.8 trillion dollars in cash, on reserve.  Which is a lot more than they had at the beginning of the recession.

And unemployment still stands at 9.7 percent.  When you stop counting the people who’ve grown so discouraged that they’ve stopped even looking for a job.

Companies have the cash to hire, but aren’t hiring because they’re afraid that the economy will go back in the tank, since people aren’t spending as much money as they have in the past.  And people are not spending as much money because either they’re unemployed or fear being unemployed.

Classic chicken and egg.

It occurs to me that what is called for at this precise moment is a bit of corporate leadership.  What’s needed is for a couple of men and women to stand up and say, “We’re going to take the risk and get people back to work. We’re going to stop the cycle of layoffs and asking one person to do the work of five people, and we’re going to staff appropriately. Starting right now.”

I know.  A girl can dream.

But imagine what that kind of bravery could do.

It just might turn around the economy and get folks back on track.

Bravery is transformative like that.  Standing up, bucking the trend, saying your piece, acting with good intention – all of it – can create huge change on a big scale.

But it can also create something new on a you-scale.

Maybe there’s a place in your life where you need to be brave.  Maybe you need to stand up, speak up, look up.  Maybe the change you’ve been looking for is a change inside yourself.  Maybe it’s time to take a deep breath and do what needs doing.

You can lead yourself to something new and wonderful.  And when you do, perhaps corporate America will be inspired by your bravery and do its own leading.