Brené Brown's Blog, page 28
October 8, 2012
daring greatly read-along #2
Sorry for the delay! We turned the book launch in London into a family trip and my schedule got a little cattywompus (as my grandmother would say).
A huge thank you to all of the folks who attended The School of Life event and the ICF Global Conference.
Below are links to articles and books that I reference in the podcast. I'll be checking comments for follow-up questions and feedback on how to make the podcasts more helpful.
OC Blog Post: More white space.
OC Blog Post: They don't need us to be sorry, just to be present.
Terry Real's books are on the last row of this page.
CG Jung quote that I butcher in the podcast: "We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses."
I'll be back on Wednesday evening with the audio for Chapter 2. The e-mail address to send questions is daringgreatlyquestions(at)gmail(dot)com.
Here is the iTunes link if you want to subscribe to the podcast. It normally takes a couple of hours for the podcast to upload to iTunes so it might be this evening.
Daring Greatly Read-Along Schedule
Pages xii – 17 | September 26 | Preface + Intro
Pages 18 – 31 | October 3(ish) | Chapter 1
Pages 32 – 57 | October 10 | Chapter 2
Pages 58 – 111 | October 17 | Chapter 3
Pages 112 – 171 | October 24 | Chapter 4
Pages 172 – 183 | October 31 | Chapter 5
Pages 184 – 213 | November 7 | Chapter 6
Pages 214 – 249 | November 14 | Chapter 7 & Final Thoughts
If you're reading this post via email, click here to listen to the audio. It's approximately 23 minutes.
So grateful to be on this DARING adventure with all of you!
September 26, 2012
daring greatly read-along #1
Welcome to the first audio of the read-along!
Today we're covering the Preface and Introduction (Pages xii – 17).
Before we start, I want to share some really amazing news with you.
Daring Greatly is #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List for 10/7/12!
And, if that's not exciting enough . . . check out our awesome charity: water campaign! We've raised $3795 from sales of the Daring Greatly t-shirts.
There's only one thing I can say:
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I'm so grateful!
There are several options for listening to the podcast. If you have QuickTime installed, the audio will simply start playing on your computer. You can also save it to your computer, or listen in iTunes if you subscribe to the feed.
Thank you for the great questions. Please leave your feedback, thoughts, and ideas in the comments section!
September 20, 2012
home is where the heart is
Home is the little things . . .
Making poached eggs in our "egg poach-in-ator."
(Charlie's term a la Dr. Doofenshmirtz on Phineas and Ferb)
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Scrambling to find uniform skirts and matching pairs of Tom’s at 6 o’clock in the morning.
Carpool, soccer practice, piano, homework, and dog walking.
Building forts and family dances in the kitchen (to everything from Vanilla Ice to Asleep at the Wheel).
Baking cupcakes.
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Putting loose change in the “LEGO Death Star” wish jar.
Marathon talks with Ellen (while we play ping pong).
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Working on my Project Life albums. This is my new creative joy!
School projects.
Nightly tuck-ins that sound like this:,
Steve: “Good night. I love you. Hand me your iPad.”
Me: “What iPad?.”
Steve: “Brené, you’re hiding your iPad under your pillow. Hand it over.”
But mostly, home is . . .
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Feeling loved not despite my vulnerabilities and imperfection but because of them.
Always knowing there’s a place where I belong. No matter what.
Never needing to shrink or play small when I’m proud of an accomplishment and never needing to puff up when I’m struggling.
What's home to you?
September 12, 2012
celebrating launch week!
The Daring Greatly launch is finally here and we're celebrating all week.
$10 of the proceeds for each shirt will got to charity: water. Our goal is for the Wholehearted community to raise $15,000 to fund a tap for 230 people in Rwanda.Click here to track our progress at charity: water.
To learn more about price and sizes, visit our new "Shop" page here.
We also have all of the manifestos ready as free 8X10 downloads.
Here's the Wholehearted Parenting Manifesto. For all of you Ali Edwards fans - you'll notice her beautiful handwriting.
Over on the download page you can grab this in cream or the Daring Greatly colors (featured below).
Tomorrow is The Katie Show! I'm sandwiched between Heidi Klum and Jennifer Lopez - how fun is that? Television is way out of my comfort zone, but I had a great time. Katie was gracious and welcoming, the audience ROCKED, and the production team was amazing. Here I am with Donna Bass - the producer who was in charge of me (can you imagine that job?). Needless to say we became fast friends.
Thank y'all again for your support. This has been such an exciting time in my life and our community has been an amazing source of strength and inspiration. More soon!
September 11, 2012
petit fours on 9/11
There's a bakery in Houston that makes the most delicious petit fours that you'll ever taste. The smell alone will knock you off of your feet. In fact, when Charlie walked in the door the first thing he said was, "If angels wear perfume, I bet it smells like this." I'm sure he's right!
My 9/11 tradition is to buy a couple dozen petit fours and drop them off at a local fire station with a note that simply says, "We appreciate you."
Today is the official release of Daring Greatly. The original date was 9/13, but due to the pre-orders (thank you SO much) it moved to what the publishing industry calls a "strict on sale" date. Those are always on Tuesday, so 9/11 became the day. I'm so incredibly excited to celebrate this week, but today is about something else for me.
I started my research right before 9/11 and if there's one thing I've learned over the past decade, it's this: We're still in a lot of fear and pain about the events that took place that day and how they marked a huge change in our world. I also learned that the best way to overcome fear and to heal hurt is by practicing gratitude and kindness.
In this big, loud, anxious world, the small things matter so much.
September 6, 2012
daring greatly read-along
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Join us right here on the Ordinary Courage blog for an 8-week online Daring Greatly read-along from 9/26/12 through 11/14/12.
You can email us your questions and I’ll answer as many as I can in a weekly audio available on my blog. You will have the option of listening to the audio on your computer, downloading it to your iPod or phone, or listening through iTunes.
You can either visit the blog weekly or you can click here to have my blog posts sent to your email inbox.
There are no real-time requirements - you can can listen at your convenience. If you want to stay on our schedule, books pre-ordered now will arrive by the end of next week.
Here's a look at the new book trailer. If you're reading this post via email, click here to watch the video.
Daring Greatly Read-Along Schedule
Pages xii – 17 | September 26 | Preface + Intro
Pages 18 – 31 | October 3 | Chapter 1
Pages 32 – 57 | October 10 | Chapter 2
Pages 58 – 111 | October 17 | Chapter 3
Pages 112 – 171 | October 24 | Chapter 4
Pages 172 – 183 | October 31 | Chapter 5
Pages 184 – 213 | November 7 | Chapter 6
Pages 214 – 249 | November 14 | Chapter 7 & Final Thoughts
Email address for Daring Greatly Questions: daringgreatlyquestions(at)gmail(dot)com
(It's written out this way for spam control reasons)
Looking forward to your thoughts and questions. Let's get our BRAVE on!
September 4, 2012
"happier at home" thanks to gretchen rubin! (and a gratitude giveaway)
Gretchen Rubin's new book, Happier at Home hits shelves today. I was lucky enough to get an early copy and I absolutely love it!
Gretchen's year-long explorations in personal happiness (The Happiness Project) and happiness at home (Happier at Home) not only inspire important soul work, they are also rollicking adventures through history and into the minds of some of our greatest thinkers.
I've already implemented several suggestions from Happier at Home and I can honestly say that these new practices have literally brought more joy into my life. A great example of this is my new "threshold ritual."
In her chapter on family, Gretchen writes,
"To remind myself to feel grateful for everything I had, and for my dear ordinary life, I decided to 'Follow a threshold ritual.' Each time I stood at the top of my steps, as I fumbled for my keys to turn off the alarm and unlock the two front doors of our building, I repeated, "How happy I am, how grateful I am, to be home." Every time I crossed the threshold from the street into my building, I took a moment to reflect lovingly on my family."
If you read my blog or if you've read The Gifts of Imperfection, you know that I'm a huge believer in the power of gratitude. In my research it was clear that the most joyful people are people who actively practice gratitude.
Honestly, I've been struggling with this lately. With the Daring Greatly book launch around the corner, I've been anxious and stressed - a condition that makes it way too easy to forget how excited and grateful I am.
Now, when I walk into my study - a room that I've turned into a really sacred space for me - I stop at the door, literally at the threshold, and say, "I'm so grateful to do work that I love and to be a part of such an amazing community."
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I also have a new coffee threshold.
[image error]FYI - I'm decaf and Steve's fully loaded. San Francisco Bay Kcups rock!
Every night before we go to bed - even when we're tired and grumpy - we set up our coffee for the next morning. I can't tell you how grounding this ritual is for me.
Now, when I walk up to the coffee maker, I say, "I'm grateful for this day and for this family" and I close my eyes and slowly recite the serenity prayer, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom or grace to know the difference." I add grace because I can't always rely on my wisdom.
I have to add that Gretchen's chapter on "Possessions" also inspired our shelf-by-shelf LEGO collecting and organizing. There were little shiny bricks everywhere! If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you may remember when I shared how a LEGO fell out of my shirt when I was walking up the aisle for communion at church. Nice.
Congratulations to Gretchen for her daring and for giving us another inspiring book! To celebrate, I'm giving away three copies of Happier at Home. To put your name in the hat, leave a commment telling us about a threshold ritual that you'd like to implement in your life! I'll pick winners tomorrow at 8pm CST.
If you've received this post via email, click here to leave a comment.
Connecting with Gretchen: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Inspiration Interview
August 29, 2012
"it's chicken to be a realist" - this is daring greatly
There is constant "bike helmet" talk in our house. Steve and I are both bike lovers, the kids ride their bikes and scooters all of the time, and Steve does triathalons (this community is buzzing about this).
And, did I mention that Steve's a pediatrician? He's not a helmet-optional kinda guy.
We hate helmets. We love them. We wear them, but we don't like it.
I'm so grateful for these women and their total DARING! Take a look. I cried at the end.
Read more about the Hovding on their website.
If you're reading this via email subscription, click here for the video.
August 27, 2012
Celebrating back-to-school with the Daring Greatly "Leadership Manifesto"
My definition of a leader is "anyone who holds her - or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes." For me, the term leader has nothing to do with position, status, or number of direct reports.
For all leaders - from first grade teachers and principals to CEOs and clergy - inspired leadership requires vulnerability and that often looks and feels like discomfort.
As I was writing Daring Greatly, I spent a lot of time looking over the data and reading through my notes from the interviews I’ve done with leaders. I wondered what students would say to teachers and what teachers would say to their principals if they had the opportunity to ask for the leadership they needed.
I thought about the grief and anger I felt when a middle school student told me that the best way to survive class was to keep your head down and your mouth shut. I thought about the teachers who are publically ranked based on standarized test scores.
I wondered what the customer service representative would say to his boss and what she might ask of her boss. What do we want people to know about us and what do we need from them?
As I started writing down the answers to these questions, I realized that they sounded like a mandate; a manifesto. Here’s what emerged from these questions:
On September 7th, we'll offer a free 8X10 download of this manifesto along with three others from Daring Greatly: The Wholehearted Parenting Manifesto, the Engaged Feedback Checklist, and the Daring Greatly quote. Huge thanks to Elan Morgan at Ninjamatics for her amazing graphic design.
And, if you preorder Daring Greatly don't forget to sign up for your free bookmarks and signed bookplate here.
Here's to a school year of showing up, being seen, practicing courage and daring greatly!
August 19, 2012
touchdown confirmed
Talk about daring greatly!
