Audacious: showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks
(bold | daring | presumptuous | cheeky)
This is my word of the year, sweet ones.
I have an interesting relationship with this word. By definition, it walks the line of daring bravery and offensively over-stepping. It captures, in one word, all the things I want to be and all the things I fear I am. I’ve sat with this word for way too much time and have spent sessions with my own therapist exploring why being audacious is something I admire in women who inspire me, but why having the “audacity” of becoming “too big for my britches” is the one thing that holds me back the most.
I think that’s why I love it so much. Audacious is “the word” that I will take into this dumpster fire of a year, mostly because it’s time. For today, anyway, here’s where I’ve determined: there will always be a risk when you are bold and brave; if you choose to go all-in and step outside the expectations of who you “should” be, there will be feedback. Many of us are tired, so we play it safe – we take the path of least resistance, which is understandably easier than voicing strong opinions and dealing with the backlash.
Playing it safe also means you will never know what it means to push limits, test boldness, and “be too much.” You must have the audacity to question the norm in an authentic way, and from an informed, inclusive perspective. But it’s delicate – because challenging the status quo with reckless abandon is usually a mistake, and we must remain wildly open to feedback for it all to make sense. I think believing in something passionately, leaving it all out there, is often the mark of some of the most successful shifts in humanity. And wow, do we need it now.
So, audaciously pursuing kindness, connection, and huge unrelenting, unorthodox changes to the way we operate with each other in this world, without tolerating bullshit, is the name of the game for this girl. It’s going to hurt, this audacious game. Turns out, I don’t know how to do it any other way. I’d love your thoughts. Who’s with me?
