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<\/p>\nI\u2019m sure that you, like me, are proud of different things in your life.<\/p>\n
Your children, the goals you\u2019ve achieved, the challenges you\u2019ve overcome or the ways you\u2019ve helped others to overcome their own.<\/p>\n
As you should be. Yet sometimes we can be too proud for our own good. Like when we let our fear of losing face keep us from forging new ground and taking a risk toward the things we want most.<\/p>\n
Let me explain.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend I hosted my first Live Brave Day here in Melbourne. It was a very special day as nearly 100 big-hearted people came together from across Australia to reset their compass on the highest vision for their lives and confront the fears and beliefs that stand in their way.<\/p>\n
Yet the day would never have happened if I hadn\u2019t lay my own pride on the line and risked the possibility that no-one would register. In fact, initial registrations were slow and back in mid December, I found myself feeling\u00a0very vulnerable. I recall saying to my husband, \u201cI guess I can share this failure in the years to come\u2026 once my pride has repaired.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortunately, as people returned to work in the new year registrations took off. (Phew.) But that isn\u2019t the point. The point is that unless we are willing to lay our pride on the line when life calls for it, we we cage ourselves in and cut ourselves off.<\/p>\n
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Misplaced pride, driven by our fear of losing face and desire to keep up appearances and win admiration, can keep us from taking the very risks needed to build our confidence, competence and courage to enjoy more of what we most want in our lives – personally and professionally. Left unchecked, it can keep us living so safe that we fail by default.<\/p>\n
Like grapes on a vine, if we aren\u2019t growing, you are withering. It is only when we dare to do more, be more and give more than we have up to now (and risk having your pride dinted in the process) that we can ever blossom into the full quota of the human being we were born to become. As a wrote in Brave<\/a>, \u201cGrowth and comfort can\u2019t ride the same horse.\u201d<\/p>\n Research by Harvard’s Dan Gilbert (outlined in his book Stumbling on Happiness<\/em>) found\u00a0that at life\u2019s end, people regret far more the risks they didn\u2019t take than those they did \u2013\u00a0including<\/span>\u00a0those that didn\u2019t pay off. Why? Because even when we don\u2019t get the outcomes we want, we still learn a lot in the process that helps us do better in the future. But when we risk nothing, we learn nothing. <\/strong><\/p>\n