What does it mean to be brave?

What does it mean to be brave? There are all kinds of examples of bravery. The first definition that comes up in Google from Merriam-Webster describes brave as an adjective, a verb, and a noun. It states, “having or showing courage, facing danger, pain, or difficult situations without letting fear stop you.”

For me, the last part of the definition is what hits…without letting fear stop you. Now, whether it’s trauma, disappointment, failure, I, just like you my dear reader, have experienced these. And especially because I’ve experienced trauma, I always have associated bravery with the biggest, most challenging, and against-all-odds moments in life.

But bravery is a choice, a habit, and decision one makes every day. In the worst and most challenging of situations, one is brave when they do not let fear or any negativity dissuade them from moving ahead.

But bravery is required in a spectrum of life’s situations and today I want to focus on bravery in the less than life-or-death situations.

Bravery is betting on yourself. Each one of us need not look far to find some person, some force, some societal narrative telling us to stop, to give up, to stick to what we know, stay in our lane.

And so in that spirit of ignoring my own doubt and any doubt or critique I might receive from the outside, I want to share one brave thing I decided and I am doing.

I am investing in myself.

Over the past few years, I have given some keynote addresses, speeches, and regularly presented paper presentations at academic events. I ran a school so I spoke regularly to large audiences of our school community. And over these years of presenting and speaking, I have received positive feedback on my words, my presence, and message.

So today, I’m happy to share that I have joined the Mic Drop Workshop. It’s not an announcement per se, but it makes me nervous to say it out loud. To write this in public. Because starting something new can be hard. But I wanted to recognize what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.

But before we begin, Mic Drop Workshop is an initiative by Jess Ekstrom who is a Forbes top rated speaker on motivation. She started what is essentially a class, a community, and a network to get more women into public speaking and tell their stories. She knew there were not enough female speakers and so she is doing something about it.

Now, I joined for a few reasons…Firstly, I want to expand my audience and I do believe I have a story to tell. When I have received such positive feedback about my talks after keynotes in both New Orleans and Miami, I decided I would bet on myself to expand my audience.

Secondly, I attended one of her free information sessions and unlike a few other companies I’d looked into, Jess was not a salesperson in the webinar. She was explaining a gap she saw and I saw passion and excitement for her dedication to fix the lack of female speakers on the circuit.

(It’s at this point that I must tell you that I am not being paid to write this post and I was not asked. This is all me here.)

And she convinced me through her track record, her passion for women speakers, and frankly, the program costs to join were not exorbitant. So I did it. I joined.

And even though this is not the kind of bravery I have needed in more trying episodes of my life. I am being brave. I am betting on myself. I am investing in myself. And that is brave. Trying something new, big or small, is brave.

And so to close, I am turning a corner. I left my previous position to make some real changes in my life. And I am. And I will share some of those exciting developments soon. And I know I like speaking to people, sharing my research, sharing my experience, and believe it can help others the way my previous audiences have responded.

And so I wanted to remind you that being brave is not reserved only for the most difficult challenges. My life would not have gone down the toilet if I hadn’t joined Mic DropWorkshop. But this investing in myself opens a door to create something special and meaningful for myself and others.

So that’s the post. Be brave. In big and small things. Go for it. I’m going for it. And my hope is that I can share more with you soon about what I’m up to and also write posts about speaking engagements I hope to get in the future.

Be brave and have a great week!