A
ccording to the dictio-
nary, the definition of
brave is to be ready to
face and endure danger or pain;
showing courage. That elicits a
feeling in me of being in a fight
or a sense of gathering up all my
courage to accomplish a task.
A necessary skill and certainly
something that I want/need to
be doing on a regular basis. A
superpower for those tasks that
are scary or daunting. However,
I don’t want to have to be brave
everyday. That feels exhausting.
Let’s put our superhero capes
aside and dig a little deeper. The
origin of the word brave is bar-
barous. Barbarous describes a
barbarian. What are the qualities
of a Barbarian that I really like?
Sounds kind of strange, doesn’t
it? Stick with me though….
Let’s go to the definition of
barbarous. Barbarous means
to be wild, crazy, not following
the rules, and doing whatever it
takes to thrive.
What does it look like to be wild
and crazy in my business? It
means I show up in my business
with all of me. All the crazy ideas
and things I do. All the wildness
and craziness that brings me joy.
It means that I stop worrying
about what others will think or
say to me or about me. It means
I adorn my desk with pictures of
dragons, fairies, stones, and oth-
er fun stuff. It means I talk about
Soul Songs, energy, and business
plans.
Did I get to this point over-
night? No way! This took years
of working on my mindset, my
confidence, and gaining experi-
ence with clients. True confes-
sion time: I still have some rough
days.
It is all about mindset. If I am
solid in my belief in myself and
the work I do, then I can be as
wild and crazy as I want. Be-
cause I don’t care what others
think. I can celebrate being
barbarous. This is a must be-
cause this is where you get your
confidence. Think about all the
innovators of the world. Did they
care what others thought? Did
they have confidence in their
ideas and their ability to make
those things happen?
You have to have confidence in
yourself and what you can pro-
vide to your clients. You have to
tell them what you do, how you
do it, and how it is going to radi-
cally transform their lives.
You can say the words all day
long but if you don’t believe them
deep down to your core, your
client won’t either. You have to
be the Badass Boss who knows
she is incredible at what she does
and will provide fantastic benefit
Those barbarians had a singular
focus. They had to eat, have shel-
ter, and not get killed. Basic life
needs. Almost everything they
did was focused on those tasks.
As entrepreneurs and CEO’s we
need to have that same laser-like
focus to be successful and thrive.
We need to be barbarous!
I’ll ask my title question again.
Are you Barbarous enough?
Are you wild and crazy? Are you
a rule breaker? Are you willing
to do whatever it takes to thrive?
Are you focused on not dying
everyday?
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