Want to hear a secret? When I learned Brene Brown was speaking at SHRM 2019, I was determined to go, no matter what, and the cherry on top would be if Andrea could come. Achievement unlocked. The cherry on top of this is that my HR certification is up for renewal come September and this conference pushes me over the line for renewal. Back to Brené. If you aren’t familiar with Brene’s work, I recommend you jump right into it by watching her Netflix show, The Call to Courage. Brene studies and writes about shame, vulnerability, trust and bravery. On Tuesday, Brene reminded the 20,000 Human Resources professionals in attendance, “You can’t be brave without putting yourself out there.”
Andrea and I think about Brene’s work a lot - sometimes consciously, other times subconsciously. We have our own family values (framed and hung at home) and, many of them can be translated to Brene’s teachings. For example, one of our values is “don’t be a chump ass mother fucker” and Brené would say, “Have Boundaries.” Another value of ours is “Don’t Settle” whereas Brené would say “choose the bigger life”. We’ve been thinking about this one a lot lately for a variety of reasons that I’ll write about at some point but for now, have you ever noticed how foreshadowing happens in life? I remember learning about foreshadowing in literature when I was in high school. At the time, I thought this was some writerly sleight of hand. But now I believe that foreshadowing happens in real life. You’re given little breadcrumbs of clues that sometimes can only be made sense of in retrospect. And you have to figure out what they mean and what to do with them. And are they leading you towards a bigger life or a smaller one? The conference helps you meet your step goal. We passed a first aid office this morning. “Nursing services are provided by Sunrise (Senior Living).” Andrea pointed out. “I saw that yesterday and there was a line. I wonder...” “Blisters.” Andrea replied. Which is a solid guess. Tonight we are going on a ghost hunt. I read it’s historical and good. I am also hoping a little scary. Innocence, your history of silence Won't do you any good Did you think it would? Let your words be anything but empty Why don't you tell them the truth? Say what you wanna say And let the words fall out Honestly I wanna see you be brave With what you want to say And let the words fall out Honestly I wanna see you be brave -Sara Bareilles