Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than for September 18, 2023
September 11, 2023
September 25, 2023
Transcript:
The credit belongs to the man in the arena. Whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood. Who strives valiantly. Who errs and comes short again and again. Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement. And who, at worst, if he fails… …at least fails while daring greatly. - Theodore Roosevelt That’s what life is about… …about daring greatly, about being in the arena. When you walk up to that arena… …and you put your hand on the door, and you think… THE ARENA I’m going in and I’m going to try this. Shame is the gremlin who says… UH, UH YOU’RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH. YOU NEVER FINISHED THAT MBA. YOUR WIFE LEFT YOU. I KNOW YOUR DAD WASN’T REALLY IN LUXEMBOURG, HE WAS IN SING SING. I KNOW THOSE THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO YOU GROWING UP. I KNOW YOU DON’T THINK YOU’RE PRETTY ENOUGH OR SMART ENOUGH OR TALENTED ENOUGH OR POWERFUL ENOUGH. I KNOW YOUR DAD NEVER PAID ATTENTION, EVEN WHEN YOU MADE CFO. Shame is that thing. And if we can quiet it down and walk in and say… Woman: I’m going to do this! We look up and the critic that we see pointing and laughing… …99 percent of the time is who? Us. I know it’s seductive to stand outside the arena and think… Woman: I’m going to go in there and kick some ass when I’m bulletproof and when I’m perfect. And that is seductive. But the truth is that never happens. And even if you got as perfect as you could and as bulletproof as you could possibly muster when you got in there… …that’s not what we want to see. We want you to go in. We want to be with you and across from you. And we just want, for ourselves and the people we care about and the people we work with… …to dare greatly. - Brene Brown
“Guilt is just as powerful, but its influence is positive, while shame’s is destructive. Shame erodes our courage and fuels disengagement.”
“When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible.”
“In many ways, September feels like the busiest time of the year: The kids go back to school, work piles up after the summer’s dog days, and Thanksgiving is suddenly upon us.”
“‘Crazy-busy’ is a great armor, it’s a great way for numbing. What a lot of us do is that we stay so busy, and so out in front of our life, that the truth of how we’re feeling and what we really need can’t catch up with us.”
“Social media has given us this idea that we should all have a posse of friends when in reality, if we have one or two really good friends, we are lucky.”
“I’m not a parenting expert. In fact, I’m not sure that I even believe in the idea of ‘parenting experts.’ I’m an engaged, imperfect parent and a passionate researcher. I’m an experienced mapmaker and a stumbling traveler. Like many of you, parenting is by far my boldest and most daring adventure.”
“Maybe stories are just data with a soul.” —Brené Brown