The other day I asked a group, "share a moment where you learned something meaningful about yourself or the way the world works." For some reason, all of the stories that followed had something to do with what happened both before and after the person shared a courageous truth. Perhaps they spoke truth to bullshit. Truth to power. It wasn't exactly where I expected the conversation to go, but hey, I can make soup out of just about anything.
And we did. What came out of the conversation was a great deal of clarity on what it is that creates space for learning. A yearning for learning. A desire to chase learning. And it almost always came down to some dissatisfaction with the status quo or challenge to our integrity. But that wasn't the end. Dissatisfaction wasn't enough. It took speaking up. Showing up. Taking the shot. And then, living through the chaos that followed!
My story in this was an event that preceded me getting fired many years ago. I was young and let the person in charge know what I thought about her way of doing things. Perhaps I wasn't elegant in my presentation. She took exception to my thoughts and suggested I might be happier working elsewhere. And I was! Speaking my courageous truth to her and getting fired opened up the door to another opportunity which propelled me into a wonderful career that re-shaped my life. And, that's another story.
So, what is the courageous truth you might speak today?
Onward!
V
