Installment 9: Daring

There is immense power in a declaration. A confident and formal statement of objectives can serve as a catalyst for action, transcending one's desire for inspiration or motivation. When we have these deep moments of clarity, they're astronomically different from our typical wants and desires. There is no comparison. Declarations don't sound like, "I want to lose 10 lbs.", or "I'd like to learn to speak a 2nd language", or "I'm working on developing a better relationship with my partner". No, a declaration is much more severe than that because it's absolutely inescapable once uttered out loud. There is no turning back from a declaration, and the power of this tool will be the basis for our conversation today.

Whatever there be of progress in?life comes not through adaptation but through daring. - Henry Miller

This is Installment 9: Daring

My big sister, Letty, is one of my heroes. She's the one who taught me to be a little more daring. She seems to live in a constant state of being able to manifest whatever she wants. It's been a pattern she's lived her entire life, always testing the boundaries of whatever is in front of her. Whatever you and I might be satisfied with isn't even close to what it could become, and that's what Letty seems to immediately visualize. She makes it seem so effortless. I promise you, if you're ever around her, she'll uplevel your ideas instantaneously. For her, daring seems to come instinctively. And when she says something else is within reach, she knows it. She's not guessing. She's not hoping it will be. She simply knows there is a next level available, and she consistently arrives at better destinations and outcomes at will. Even without enough information or data points, it's freakishly amazing how she can see the forward path. When she dials in on something she wants, it almost becomes this obsessive mantra to her. Her declarations are so pronounced that I fully believe she is able to unlock a mechanism in her brain. Our minds are complex, yet they're preprogrammed, as I've stated in previous installments. Letty has a skill for reprogramming her mind to take her wherever she wants to go.

It wasn't until I was in my late 40s that I realized she is one of the most daring individuals I've ever been around. She understands that risk is a fundamental and necessary application of life, which can be incredibly uncomfortable for those around her. I say that with confidence because I was one of those individuals. I worried about her decisions, her safety, and how much she could endure as she resiliently pushed the needle. Ultimately, I realized my thoughts were my own rationalizations of fear. They were my justifications of what I interpreted as potentially being too risky. I'm beginning to free myself of this mentality, and it's a challenging but achievable pursuit to completely surrender to it.

If you or your leader could use a little coaching on what it might take to break a habit of living in a state of comfort and predictability, taking minimal risks, you're in the right spot today. Learning to adopt a daring mentality is not simply about developing a mechanism for assessing and accepting increased levels of risk. It involves a complete package of awareness, intuition, adaptability, and execution. Lose these elements, and you'll be failing before you even begin to fail. To be daring means you're fully aware some elements of your plan will begin to fail, but that will never be enough of a reason not to move in a certain direction. Daring individuals have confidence in their own internal framework AND the systems around them. Whether the daring individual built the systems or not is irrelevant. Daring is knowing you will definitely need to add a new strategy along the way. Daring is making swift decisions to counterattack when things are veering off course. Daring is something you can learn. If being daring seems innate to some individuals, that is exactly the thinking I'd like to interrupt. This is a limited viewpoint. If you believe some can be daring and others cannot, you've boxed in your beliefs about what is risky and what is practical. And this distinction will only get in your way. In fact, this distinction is the barrier.

Since Installment 1, I've repeated the philosophy that we should not predetermine what we can do or what we are capable of learning. Daring is one of those systems that can be learned, harnessed, and unleashed at will. Someone who operates with logical and practical approaches will never achieve what a daring individual does. No element of luck will ever counter the difference, and I'd like you to contemplate what that could mean for you. There is no amount of pre-planning and strategy that can be substituted for daring. Daring is in a league of its own and has a language of its own. I challenge you to tap into it. It's there for you, and it's real.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined.” ~Henry David Thoreau?

Onward & Upward