05 Aug Worth the Risk: How to Microdose Bravery to Grow Resilience, Connect More, and Offer Yourself to the World
Would you like to be more brave? Happier? Have more resilience?
Would you like to change or improve ANYTHING in your life?
The answer is almost certainly YES and if so, then the good news is you probably don’t need to make BIG changes.
Doing little things, regularly and consistently, is the most effective way to achieve pretty much anything.
And in this Next Big Ideas Club article by Kristen Lee the idea of “microdosing” is proffered …
Kristen Lee is a doctor of behavioral science, as well as a comedian. She is the Lead Faculty for Behavioral Science and at Northeastern University, where her research focuses on well-being and resilience. She is also the host of Crackin’ Up: Where Therapy Meets Comedy.
Below, Kristen shares 5 key insights from her new book, Worth the Risk: How to Microdose Bravery to Grow Resilience, Connect More, and Offer Yourself to the World. Listen to the audio version—read by Kristen herself—in the Next Big Idea App.
1. We need to rethink risk.
Before we lose our first tooth, we are taught that brave means big—as in Malala-Mother-Theresa-Nelson-Mandela big. Bravery is pitched as grand gestures, even though science shows that small acts of courage are cumulative, leading to big impact.
Risks are inherent to life. Plus, we are hardwired to take them. Playing it safe doesn’t necessarily make life less dangerous. Risks can be nourishing, allowing for growth as we become comfortable with the uncomfortable. We can leverage this feature of our brain to experience a bold, adventurous, colorful life. Bravery can be a powerful form of liberation.
Contrary to popular belief, being a risk-taker doesn’t mean you have skydive unabashedly out of a plane, or bet it all at the Bellagio. We are egged on to have Mufasa-like courage, even though we can often feel like Cowardly Lions in this Age of Anxiety, The Great Resignation, and all the trauma we’ve been marinating in. We’re pressured to stay motivated, productive, and go big or stay home. On the other extreme, we’re fed cautionary tales about risk, like:
- The afraid-to-fly passenger whose plane crashes.
- The employee who speaks truth to power and gets fired.
- The entrepreneur who takes a business risk and loses their shirt.
- The romantic who puts their heart on the line and is rejected.
Then there are epithets, like “a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush.” “Curiosity killed the cat.” “The grass isn’t greener on the other side.” Risk is synonymous with instability, yet brain science shows that there are risks worth taking. This isn’t to romanticize risk, but allows us to be more humane with ourselves and one another when things don’t go as planned.
“Contrary to popular belief, being a risk-taker doesn’t mean you have skydive unabashedly out of a plane, or bet it all at the Bellagio.”
… keep reading the full & original article HERE