I’ve been listening to Brene Brown’s newest book and went in search of a previous email I had sent with some of her ideas.

Here you go:

You can’t selectively numb emotions. – Brene Brown

After hearing about Brene Brown in the training we received a few weeks ago, I went out and found and listened to her TED Talks.

I think this quote came from her talk on vulnerability: https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability

The idea that we can’t selectively numb emotions really struck with me. I couldn’t shake the idea that the reason so many spend their lives in mediocrity might be that they have chosen to numb themselves as a result of some bad experience.

Whether we numb ourselves with a serious dependency like drugs or with something seemingly innocent like cupcakes (hey, what’s he got against cupcakes?), the result is the same: we also can’t feel as much joy and happiness in the good moments.

And maybe when we can’t feel as much joy in the moments of our highest triumphs, we don’t work so hard for them, or maybe they’re just not worth it.

Then we settle.

We settle for less joy because it means less pain.

We settle for less money because it means less risk.

We settle for less relationship because it means less heartbreak.

We settle for less life because we might lose ours.

Hopefully this TED talk can serve as a wake up call for you (if you needed one, or a good reminder if you needed one of those). Are you not allowing yourself to be vulnerable enough to really reach your potential?

Make it a great day.

Jake

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