On the flip side, I've also had to struggle with saying "yes." Before I did this research and before I had my own breakdown and spiritual awakening around this work, my motto was, "Don't do anything that you're already not great at doing." Which I think is the way the majority of adults in our culture live. Authenticity is also about the courage and the vulnerability to say, "Yeah, I'll try it. I feel pretty uncomfortable and I feel a little vulnerable, but I'll try it!"

We're a nation of exhausted and over-stressed adults raising over-scheduled children.

You can't get to courage without walking through vulnerability.

Through my research, I found that vulnerability is the glue that holds relationships together. It's the magic sauce.

hat whole phrase, "daring greatly," is from the Theodore Roosevelt quote that goes back to your original question of, what about the critics? And when I read his quote it was life-changing. "It's not the critic who counts; it's not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done the better.

Vulnerability is the core, the heart, the center, of meaningful human experience.

Cool is the emotional straightjacket. It makes us less available for connection which makes us less equipped for leadership roles.