The Woman in the Arena

There is a quote that Brene Brown, an author and researcher about shame and vulnerability, keeps mentioning on her talks.

For her, this was a life-changing quote moments after her Ted Talk about  The Power of Vulnerability went viral.

She was a very private person, and suddenly, she was the talk of the town. Her fame, albeit blissful,  was accompanied by negative comments. It affected her. This quote from former US President Theodore Roosevelt became her source of inspiration and wrote a book about it entitled Daring Greatly.

I want to share this quote by President Roosevelt's  A Man in the Arena speech. To make it more meaningful to you, World Pulse sisters, I changed it to "woman" instead of "man". 

No matter where you are now in your journey, there will be people who will criticize you for doing what you are called to do, people who question your ability or skills, people who think you're simply not enough for the role you are taking. These critics sometimes hold us back from pursuing our passions or goals. I hope we'll remember this quote from time to time as women warriors who fight daily in the arena full of critics. Here goes:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong woman stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to  the woman who is actually in the arena,

whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

who strives valiantly;

who errs,

who comes short again and again,

because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;

who spends herself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement,

and who at the worst, if she fails, at least fails while daring greatly,

so that her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Whatever role you are doing today, dear sister, --a World Pulse storyteller, encourager, Ambassador, changemaker, vocal contributor, mother, sister, daughter, wife, home maker, start-up leader, employer, businesswoman, freelancer, teacher, emotional healer, listener, and more-- as long as you are a doer, rather than a critic, you are that woman in the arena.

Keep showing up.  Be ok with failing, it would hurt, but keep fighting! Even so, DARE GREATLY.