I think most of us recognize the meaning of bravery as this:

BRAVE (brāv/) adjective – Ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage. “a brave soldier”

But  to me, “Braving Up” takes it one step further:

#FINDINGBRAVE

Recognizing — and courageously leveraging — what you’re made of as a human and spiritual being, and mustering the commitment, passion and courage to draw on all that you are to create the life you dream of, through the fear and the pain.

In short, it’s about rising up, speaking up and standing up for our lives, and transforming everything – even in face of our deep fear, insecurity and confusion.

THE FINDING BRAVE PATH

I am passionate about teaching, training and coaching around how to access the bravery, strength and commitment to build thrilling lives and livelihoods we love, and share what my research and experience has revealed are the 10 critical pathways to ultimate bravery.

I hope you find this podcast and material gives you an exciting new lens through which to see yourself – helping you recognize your amazing brilliance, talents and gifts, and supporting you to forge a new path to leverage these talents, strengths and passions more powerfully and fully, in thrilling and rewarding ways.

So, what does the Finding Brave life look like for a woman?

When women embrace these new Finding Brave habits, behaviors and mindsets, they…:

• Engage in and create work that is personally meaningful, fulfilling and impactful.
• Achieve the deep respect, love, kindness and appreciation they deserve.
• Use their immense talents and gifts in loving service of others, helping improve the world in some critical way.
• Build beautiful, heart-connected relationships that are healthy, mutually beneficial and enriching.
• Shed their fear of real intimacy and true connection, and share themselves more healthily and fully with others.
• Serve as beautiful role models for their children and other women who wish to live bravely and fully.
• Cast off the pain and trauma from the past and from their cultural and religious training that keeps them from seeing how special, valuable and beautiful they are.
• Act in closer alignment with what they believe and value.
• Communicate and connect with others in ways that enliven and uplift all those they come in contact with.

In short, a Finding Brave life allows us to muster the strength and resilience every day to live, love and grow powerfully just as our souls intended when we signed up for this lifetime.

The 7 Brave Ways to Rise Up, Speak Up and Stand Up for your life that we’ll cover in this podcast, and in all the material presented are:

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” 
― Nelson Mandela

When I was in my 20’s and 30’s and immersed in my 18-year corporate life, I struggled inwardly to feel successful, valued and to make what I believed was a positive contribution in the world.  Back then, I thought I was brave, but in truth, I wasn’t. Not by a long shot.

I was afraid and hesitant all the time, and I couldn’t seem to muster the courage to speak up and stand up powerfully for myself or others. I didn’t have the strength to take on all that I saw around me that was wrong and unfair, staring at me right in the face. I was afraid of being punished, and of being disliked, displeasing or rejected if I shared my true feelings. And I never really believed I knew enough to be respected in my work (that old impostor syndrome played big tricks with my head). I didn’t feel “good enough.”

Now that I have left that old life behind, and transformed my life to a new path as a trained marriage and family therapist and career and leadership development coach, writer, speaker and trainer, running my own business and coaching thousands of women around the world, I’ve seen that my prior experience wasn’t unique to me at all.

In fact, it reflects the lives of millions of women who have been held back from accessing the bravery, assertiveness and confidence necessary to live in alignment with who they really are. And they’ve been swayed (culturally and otherwise) to believe they can’t make the impact in the world that they long to. My experience is a mirror of the trauma so many women continue to face from being suppressed and diminished for being female.

Harsh as this sounds, it has often felt to me like my clients and course members are bloodied, wounded soldiers on the battlefield, and I’m desperately asking, “Where’s the Red Cross?”

In the past several years, I began to try to put my finger on why so many women experience certain kinds of trauma, pain and disappointment in their work-lives that are different from what men experience.

I asked myself this core question:

“What is the one, most essential ingredient that is missing from the lives of women who feel they can’t experience the joy, success, reward and impact they desperately long for?“

And I asked myself too:

“If I could identify the single most important trait taught in my courses that helps women thrive and build happier, more fulfilling and impactful lives, what would that be?“

Both answers were the same – Bravery and Power.

I analyzed the major themes and findings that emerged from my Amazing Career Project course and my research and work over the past 15 years, about how women relate to themselves, others, the world and their higher selves and the part that bravery and power play in supporting them and helping them build the careers they dream to have, with the impact they want and deserve.

The results were staggering: both Bravery and Power are essential for a well-lived life, and so many women haven’t identified how to access enough of it.

In all my work today, and now in my new book The Most Powerful You: 7 Bravery-Boosting Paths to Career Bliss, I’m keenly focused on helping women rise up, speak up, and stand up for their lives, in ways they never could have imagined before. And to transform the pain and trauma from the past into growth, success, joy and deep reward.

For more about my path to bravery and also my official bio, click here.

For more on my Finding Brave career and personal growth programs, click here.