Every life is the sum of countless choices.
Some are so small we barely notice them. Whether to make the ask or say nothing. Whether to speak up or sit it out. Whether to risk feeling stupid trying something new.
And while some choices don’t feel significant over time, they add up and create the architecture of our lives. The relationships we form. The career we build. The family we create. The person we become.
That’s why I’ve writing this now. To help you choose the braver path. In small moments, and in larger ones.
Why Choose Braver?
Let me break that down:
Choose: Because your decisions shape your life and yet too often, we give away our power by operating in default, taking the easier path that requires less of us in the moment.
And Braver:
Because our lives expand in proportion to the bravery and courage (I use those words synonymously) we bring to it. This takes many forms. From our refusal to be defined by our circumstances to our willingness to pursue a goal that lights us up or step away from a path that doesn’t.
And I say braver, not brave, because living a truly great life, one that is true and authentic to you, is never about perfection. It’s about progress.
None of us are brave all of the time. All of us can be braver some of the time.
Ultimately courage is not an emotion, it’s a decision. It’s choosing to have that tough conversation. To step up to the plate in a bigger way. To risk the awkward moment. To say Yes, say No, say Enough!
Because each time we choose the braver path, we’re affirming our agency in a world intent on siphoning it and casting a vote for the person - the leader, the parent, and partner, creator or change agent - we want to become.
We’re also helping others be braver on their own path.
So why now?
We’re living at an extraordinary moment in human history.
Never have we had more technology to connect us yet never have we felt so alone.
Never has it been safer to be alive, and yet never have we felt more anxious.
Never have we had more information to inform our decisions, and yet never have more overwhelmed or unsure what to do.
I’m launching this substack - Choose Braver - to help with that. To help you:
Get beneath the noise to tap into the deeper wisdom within you
Anchor your decisions in principles that don’t change, even as everything else does.
Grow your inner capacity to transform what tests you into what expands you.
Chart a path that - no matter how shaky the ground feels beneath you or how large the mountain ahead - leads you toward a life that ignites new possibility, purpose and power within you.
In fact, I believe there has never been a more important time in human history to grow our inner capacity to discern the best path forward, who and what we can trust trust, how to live and who it is we are being called to become for the chapter ahead.
Those choices remain profoundly human. And they’re the ones that define our lives.
So who am I?
In short, I’m someone who has spent much of my life trying, and often stumbling, in walking the braver path. Leaving my parents small dairy farm where I grew up (big sister of seven kids!) to go to university.
Backpacking solo for the better part of two years in my early twenties. Moving to Papua New Guinea for three years, considered the most dangerous place on earth outside a war zone at the time.
Having four kids across three continents in five years.
Resetting on a new career path in coaching (later stepping onto stages to speak) in a new country with four young kids.
Starting over again… and again and again… I supported my husband’s career (and yes, we are still married… 32 years and counting!)
Writing my first book… and my second… a sixth, all the while wondering when everyone would discover I went to a one room school house and never learned where to put the apostrophes. Taking on a PhD in my 40s. Stepping away from a secure role that fed my ego but dimmed my light just last year so i could step back up to the plate in my life to honor the deeper siren call on my soul… like writing this, to you, write now.
Yet perhaps some of my bravest choices were choosing not to give in to despair or self pity… or both. Choosing to look hard within myself to heal an eating disorder that trapped me in a spiral of shame during my teens and twenties. Choosing to reclaim my power after being in an armed robbery and losing my first baby mid-pregnancy 10 days later. Choosing to find purpose from the heartwrench of my youngest brothers tortorous battle with schizophrenia that ultimately claimed his life. Watching my mum disappear into the deep merciless fog of dementia.
These experiences taught me that courage is very rarely some grand, heroic moment. Rather it it often looks more like ordinary decisions that, over time, shape the landscape of our lives and the person we become,
That’s what Choose Braver explores.
Is this for you?
If you don’t want to settle for anyting less than the biggest life you are capable of living, and yet sometimes get pulled into “stinkin’ thinkin” (to quote Richard Rohr), or feel like your doubts sometimes dull your shine, or you could just do with a regular reminder to back yourself more often, this is for you.
Whether you want to step up to the leadership plate in a bolder way or reset on a new path (but your now quite sure what it is) or reclaim the power you’ve too often surrendered to the opinions of others, Choose Braver is for you.
It’s for anyone who wants their choices shaped by who they’re becoming, not by what they’re afraid of losing.
What you’ll find?
Articles and sometimes videos - all with what I aim to be useful, inspiring, and practical. My aim is to bridge head and heart, science and soul that will draw on a combination of
Practical psychology and leadership insights, as my paid work is both keynote speak and coaching people trying to change the world at speed… and the hard human parts of doing that
Personal stories ripped from the pages of my own life
Ancient wisdom, including from spiritual sages whose ideas are timeless
Simple practices to help you regulate your fear, live your truth and choose braver in the moments it matters most
The intention behind them all is to help you navigate your own life with greater clarity, recognize where deep (often unconscious) fear is pulling the strings on your choices and grow the capacity to make the braver one.
And then to repeat daily. Forever.
Where to start
If you’re new here, this post is your anchor - come back to it whenever you want to remember what this space is for. Beyond that, start with the About Page to get a feel for the kind of work we do together here, then follow whatever title catches something true for you. That pull is usually the sign it’s the one to read next.
If any of this resonates, I’d love to have you here. Subscribe, and every other week or so you’ll get a new post to help you spot the fear that’s been quietly narrating your choices - and make a braver one instead.