Owning My Truth
Photo by Michael Schofield on Unsplash
I recently posted a response to this article on LinkedIn about being a consciously childfree woman. I have received (and continue to receive) a lot of great feedback and support – so first off, thank you! There were a few responses in particular (all from amazing moms, BTW) that really stood out. They all referenced: “owning my truth.”
What’s funny, is that it never occurred to me that I was “owning my truth.” Being vulnerable? Yes. But, OWNING MY TRUTH? That’s deep and far scarier than a moment of courage. Courage. Now there’s a value to explore.
I recently did a values exercise in Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead. She challenges you to choose two. That’s right, ONLY TWO CORE VALUES. The point goes back to Jim Collins’ principle “if you have too many priorities, you have no priorities.” I did a similar exercise late last year and reluctantly landed on five (I wanted fifteen): family, connecting with others, walking my talk, joy, and fun.
What does this have to do with courage? After leaning in and truly thinking about the priorities in my life, I was able to narrow it down to two: courage and fun. Does this mean family is no longer important? No! As Brené references in the book, my “second tier” values listed above are constantly being tested by my primary values.
For example, my FAMILY (both given and chosen) brings overwhelming JOY to my life. I honor both my values of COURAGE and FUN to forgive vs. fester, remembering that JOY.
Another example, while my career has always involved CONNECTING WITH OTHERS, the stress outweighed the FUN. I honored COURAGE to make a change and am now CONNECTING WITH OTHERS in a way that not only honors FUN but also brings sheer JOY to my life.
In fact, writing these articles and putting myself out there is definitely honoring COURAGE. And I am having so much FUN CONNECTING WITH YOU!
Ironically, I’ve never had the courage to even consider courage as a core value of mine – fun is a different story. Courage means I’m choosing something hard or doing something I’m afraid of. It means I have to step outside my comfort zone and feel something…different.
However, FUN comes when my COURAGE turns into inspiration or a thriving business. A business I never knew I wanted to start. FUN comes when I quite literally bring my secondary value of “WALKING MY TALK” to life via a weekly video series that is allowing me to CONNECT WITH OTHERS in a way I never thought I could (most recent episode can be found here)!
And FUN comes when I see people encouraged to “own their truth,” the way I unconsciously did when I shared my perspective of being a consciously childfree woman. I guess my value of COURAGE is more apparent and far less scary than I ever knew.
Have you considered lately how you’re honoring your core values and staying true to yourself? And if you’re not, what small changes could you make to honor them more?
