Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

by Brené Brown

I first introduced the term grounded confidence in Dare to Lead. The core learning in Dare to Lead is that it’s not fear that gets in the way of courage, it’s armor—how we self-protect when we feel uncertain or fearful. Our armoring behaviors keep us from showing up in ways that are aligned with our values. As we learn to recognize and remove our armor, we replace it with grounded confidence. The concept was in its infancy when I wrote about it several years ago. It only included three properties: the abilities to rumble with vulnerability, stay curious, and practice new skills. What you see now is a much fuller concept with more properties. And my guess is that we’ll continue to work on this for years to come.