2014 Resolution: To Dare Greatly and Live Wholeheartedly

“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.” –Brené Brown

I don’t do many things half-heartedly, and I never really have.  When I choose to do something, I throw my whole heart into it.  I don’t know any other way.  So does that mean I live wholeheartedly?

I like to think so.

But what does it really mean to live wholeheartedly?

I’ve been obsessed with Brené Brown ever since I read Daring Greatly a few months ago.  While the book didn’t actually change my life, it taught me how to embrace the things that I love the most about myself and stop living in fear.  After reading that book, I had an epiphany—I’ve been dying for vulnerability to be socially acceptable.  If you’ve ever spent more than 10 minutes with me, you know that I love just about everyone I meet, and I’ll tell my life story to just about anyone who will listen.  Usually, just about anyone will tell me his or her life story too (e.g. coworkers, baristas, cleaning ladies, security guards, cab drivers…you get the idea).  I really love a good H to H.  I love life and feel so incredibly grateful for the life I have (cheesy, but true).

So that makes me one of the “wholehearted,” right? 

But how often do I embrace my vulnerability, shut out fear, and live wholeheartedly, only to find myself fighting back thoughts like:

“You’re not good enough.”

“Why did you ever think that was a good idea?  How could you have been so stupid?”

“You’ll never reach your potential.” 

“In order to be worthy of X, Y, or Z, I have to do A, B, and C.  But I’ll never be capable of A, B, or C, so there’s no way I’ll ever have X, Y, or Z.”

The list goes on, and on, and on.  Dwelling on any of these questions is a pretty great way to kill the joy of any given moment, and it’s definitely a great way to stop living wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I am so incredibly guilty of this.  So here's my resolution for 2014: to dare greatly and strive to live wholeheartedly.

In order to pursue this goal relentlessly in 2014, I realized I needed a little bit of accountability (hence the blog).  And, in my quest to embrace vulnerability, I found myself seeking out stories of other people who have traveled down the road of wholehearted living, the challenges/struggles/barriers they’ve encountered along the way, and how they’ve worked to overcome them.  Apparently most people don’t like to talk about their own vulnerability, shame, fear, etc., because I had a pretty hard time finding anything substantial.  So the purposes of this blog are twofold: (1) to publish weekly (at least) blog posts to hold myself accountable for daring greatly all year long; and (2) to capitalize on my own willingness to be vulnerable in the hopes that perhaps others can find comfort and inspiration in hearing my struggles and successes.

My hope is that people will read my stories and think “Oh, thank God I’m not the only one,” or “Oh my gosh, me too.”  In sharing my stories, I hope to focus on the deeper meaning behind each experience rather than the experiences themselves—to somehow extrapolate universal emotions and write about them without sharing the actual details of my personal life.  I want to start owning my story and loving myself through that process in the hopes that I can encourage others to do the same.

So cheers to the start of 2014 and the beginning of an awesome journey!

RR