Project Badassery

A new level of confidence in yourself creating personal swagger

                              That’s right, Project Badassery.

This word has now surfaced twice in one month for me… once while reading Brene Brown’s Rising Strong and now in Shonda Rhimes Year of Yes and you know what they say, when something comes to your attention once, it leaves a small impression, twice and it becomes an imprint and the third time, it transforms into a mission, a quest…for me a project. I’m now taking on the responsibility to bring this word into your consciousness because the origin of the word is badass and we could all use a bit of that in our lives.

This hypothetical word has stuck with me. It jumped out on the pages of Brene’s book, which materialized my first aha moment. It was like an exclamation point, a bold, brave, daring concept. I wanted to emulate that hypothetical word in my life. Then, as things often happen, poof, I forgot about the word, that aha moment evaporated. This might be an age thing, or an attention deficiency or a result of inspirational multitasking….So I continued on my self-discovery journey, turning to the next quote, audiobook, podcast or TedTalk. So many inspiring phrases, authors, concepts and stories. However, when I picked up Shonda’s book A Year of Yes she had dedicated an entire chapter on Badassery, considering it wasn’t even a word in the dictionary and it was the second time I had heard it and it stuck with me, well then, it was my duty, my goal, my project to share it.

Shonda describes it as, “The practice of knowing one’s own accomplishments and gifts, accepting one’s own accomplishments and gifts and celebrating one’s own accomplishments and gifts…the practice of living with swagger. Swagger: a state of being that involves loving oneself, waking up “like this” and not giving a crap what anyone else thinks about you.” In Brene’s Brown’s book Rising Strong this is how she describes badassery “When I see people stand fully in their truth, or when I see someone fall down, get back up, and say, “Damn. That really hurt, but this is important to me and I’m going in again”—my gut reaction is, “What a badass.”  Brene continues, “Emotional stoicism is not badassery. Blustery posturing is not badassery. Swagger is not badassery. Perfection is about the furthest thing in the world from badassery.”

Two amazing women, have coined the idea in opposing yet powerful ways and that’s what’s intrigues me. Different, weird, cool, full of wonder, amazing stuff. If I combine both of their definitions, I feel vulnerable yet strong, humble yet fierce, kind yet selfish and fearful yet courageous. The ying and yang of emotions and traits that complement each other and create a fantastic energy…a contagious energy. The process of coming into oneself without apologies.  So when I’m feeling small, I can tap into my “badassery” and stand tall, When I want to curl up in a ball, badassery will continue to move me forward, this badassery will help me gain some ground at my own pace giving me the courage to break ground…and gain confidence in myself.  This blog is an example of what “badassery” can do. To feel powerful, confident and significant is to love oneself. Shonda sums up my project beautifully when she says, “I’ve started to think we are like mirrors. What you are gets reflected back to you. What you see in yourself, you may see in others, and what others see in you, they may see in themselves.” BAM and there you go…that has become Project Badassery to me.