Our worthiest rebellion to stay true to ourselves.
Fear of failure. Fear of rejection. Fear of judgment. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of not being liked. Fear of not being accepted.
These are the overwhelming fears that our middle and high school friends have. In fact, at our Be Bold You workshop, these were the actual statements that the girls wrote down when we asked them about their fears. A whole whiteboard full of sticky notes.
The consensus is crystal clear. Many of us, kids and even adults, live in fear around the validations or judgments of others. I don’t blame us for these fears. We live in a world of social media likes, the most perfectly curated Instagram reels, and real-time status updates and comments.
Quote from Heart Talk by Cleo Wade
Radical Proposal
My dearest ones, what if I proposed a radical idea that we can let other people’s feelings and opinions belong to them? How freeing would that feel? How many of us would then soar unapologetically as we are, say what we want to say, and do what we dare to do?
We are beings of connection. It’s only natural we want others to accept us. I’m not suggesting we live in isolation. I’m proposing that we honor our inner compass, and don’t allow others to map out our next breath, sentence, actions, and our dreams.
Ping boldly
Recently I bought my daughter a children’s book called Ping by Ani Castillo. In it, it says, “My friend, in this life…we can only Ping. The Pong belongs to the other.”
The book goes on to say, “To LOVE is to Ping. To LIVE is to Ping…Ping freely, generously, curiously, passionately, bravely, and wisely… Ping even if you’re scared…And then, after you’re done, breathe deeply, and with an open heart.”
No matter what the other side pongs back, it’s their pong. We can only ping.
Cleo Wade calls this today’s worthiest rebellion. She writes, “I don’t know who needs to hear this but, other people do not have to like you in order for you to like yourself…even the ones you really want to like you.”
You know yourself deeply. Stay true to that, and ping boldly.
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