Why you Should be BRAVE with your One and ONLY Life!
Why Brave?
Do you pick a focus word for the year?
I do this exercise every year and back in 2019, the word I chose was ‘BRAVE’.
My son, Braedon, had passed away only seven months earlier and experiencing the first holidays he wasn’t a part of was heartbreaking. Facing a new year without him felt like an impossible but necessary mountain for me to climb and going forward and making my way was painful on the best days, scary on the worst days and uninspiring every day.
To honour Braedon’s legacy, The Braedon Foundation had already been started. A highlight had been the official launch gala in October (2018) and by the time the New Year rang in we had completed our first three projects. I just needed something else to help me feel connected to my lost son and something that would inspire me.
When it came to picking a focus word, I decided this one word would propel me forward even in the middle of my grief and despair. To this day, Braedon is the bravest person I’ve ever known and the word was chosen with him in mind.
I wanted to embrace and embody not only how Braedon faced his illness, but how he lived his life too. He jumped into things without worrying if he’d fail, or what others would think of him. Braedon was brave enough to pursue things he loved without hesitation. He put himself out there again and again. I loved that he was a dreamer, a big dreamer.
I decided that’s how I would honour him with my life. I would emulate those qualities in him that I loved so deeply and missed so much.
After choosing BRAVE as my focus word for 2019, I decided to throw myself wholeheartedly into my passion project, with complete reckless abandon – just like Braedon would do. I made it my explicit mission to become the BRAVEST, boldest, take-no-prisoners-make-no-excuses version of me.
And to take it even further, I committed to inspire others to step out in bravery too.
100 BRAVE THINGS PROJECT
I made a list. I still haven’t come up with all 100 BRAVE things but I’m committed to getting to 100 and ticking those things off my Brave List one by one. I highly recommend you do the same because this list of 100 things has changed my life and I have no doubts it will change yours too.
I've held a lizard on my head
Ran a 5km through freezing rain on New Year’s Eve
Survived a duathlon - it rained for that too
Failed the Fundy Footpath miserably and contracted Lyme disease in the process – lots of lessons learned there
Wrote an open letter on my blog to my father who abandoned me
Since that day, I’ve completed 28 projects all varying in commitment, effort and discomfort levels.
I’ve held a lizard on my head
Ran a 5km through freezing rain on New Year’s Eve
Survived a duathlon – it rained for that too
Failed the Fundy Footpath miserably and contracted Lyme disease in the process – lots of lessons learned there
Wrote an open letter on my blog to my father who abandoned me
And that’s just to name of few.