Tag: Brene brown

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Doing the best we can

Are people doing the best they can?

In her research, Brene Brown posed this question to many people and learned a lot from the results.  You can read about it in Rising Strong, her amazing new book.

So, do YOU believe that people are doing the best they can?

This is such a huge question.  Your answer to it makes the biggest difference in the world.  It is the position from which you respond to others and their shortcomings and failures.  And people fail and fall short all of the time.  Many of the inconveniences and road blocks we experience crop up because of choices others have made.  The guy in front of you is going 10 miles below the speed limit which causes you to hit every red light.  The coworker who didn’t get their part of the report to you on time.  The spouse who forgot it was their turn to get the kids from daycare.

If you are a naturally empathetic person, and/or have been raised in an unusually nurturing environment filled with patient adults, you might quickly respond that, yes, you believe people are generally trying their best.  You might even recognize that this comes across as a little naive to others, but you just can’t shake the belief that people are pretty much doing the best they can.  Your response to failure in others is empathetic and you assume that this person tried their hardest and is probably more disappointed in themselves than you could ever be.  

If you are like me, your natural tendency is to believe that when failure happens, well, people just aren’t trying hard enough.  You can see the places where they could have made a better choice and changed the trajectory of their failure.  You can see how if they would have just hurried a little, or stopped and waited or turned at this point or said something different, everything would have been fine.  You assume they have the ability to complete whatever the task was, but they chose not to focus, allowed distraction to get in their way, or just decided at some point, they didn’t care.  For me, failure is an invitation to blame.  And I’m an expert blamer.  I can tolerate failure as long as I know whose fault it was, and that they are really, really sorry and understand that it cannot happen again.  Even if I’m the culprit.  I’m way more comfortable with it being my fault than it being no one’s fault.  And I’m just as harsh with myself when it comes to my own failings.  

Now, this characteristic of insisting that someone take responsibility, self included, makes me a good leader.  Until it doesn’t.  Sometimes it makes me a terrible leader.  Because it ventures into me acting like an unfeeling, cold, control freak.  While I’ve spent years making attempts at simply controlling my behavior by using different words and tones of voice or taking five minutes before I respond to another’s failure, changing behavior only gets you so far.  The changing of the thinking is what causes transformation.

And here’s what changed my thinking.  When I flip the script, and put myself in the seat of the failing person, and someone besides myself in the judgment seat, and I experience their judgment of my failure, I feel utterly awful.  I’m already crushed by the weight of my own judgment.  I’m already embarrassed and angry at myself.  I probably was trying pretty hard in the first place.  In fact, most of the time, I’m so deathly afraid of failing, I’d risk life and limb (mine or yours) to get me across whatever finish line I’ve set my sights on.  Imagine me, doing my very best, but crossing that line just a second too late.  Imagine the crushing disappointment,  I’ve let myself down.  I’ve failed.  And then I look up, and who do I see, but someone pointing a judgmental finger at me, shaking their head in disappointment and disapproval.  But, but, but…I tried my best.  Can’t you see that?  Now, not only do I feel disappointed in myself.  I also feel shame.

So, let’s back up.  When I’m the judge, judging the failure and believing the person just isn’t trying hard enough, where is that coming from?  I notice, when I get curious about my thoughts and emotions in these circumstances, that my strongest feelings come when another’s failure impacts me.  I am slowed down.  I am inconvenienced.  I am held back.  I have to do additional work.  I have to clean up the mess.  For me, it’s not so much about feeling superior or wanting to believe I’m better.  It’s about blame.  If I watch someone make a careless mistake while driving, and bump into another car, I might feel empathy.  Ooh, that sucks, dude.  Bummer.  But if it’s MY car they hit…well, let’s rev up that blame engine because I can find 37 things that person did wrong in .25 seconds.

For me, it’s about how the mistake impacts me.  The cost I have to pay because of your carelessness, thoughtlessness, laziness, etc.  This brings us into the land of choices, and specifically, the land of choices that include things like grace and mercy.  Oh, how I crave grace and mercy for myself.  But I’m so stingy when it comes to others.  Only if I can see it on your face, see the contrition, see the regret.  Then, I’m pretty generous with my grace and mercy.  But when you think you deserve it without even feeling especially bad, or, worse yet, you don’t recognize you need it, man does my blood boil.

I realize, as I think on this, that it’s about cost.  You failed.  It impacts me negatively – so there is already a cost in my having to clean up the mess or incur a financial or time burden, but on top of that, there is a cost to the emotional toll it has on me – I feel angry or hurt.  Now I need a place to put that emotion, and the easiest, most convenient place is to point it right at you.  Blame leads me to discharge the pain I’m experiencing.  But grace leads me to keep it, and take the responsibility of transforming it inside myself instead of discharging it at you.

The idea that people are trying to do the best they can makes choosing the grace path a little easier.  That ball of anger that formed when you hit my car is so fiery and sharp.  But when I think about the possibilities of what you had on your mind, what might have distracted you, how you must feel about yourself right now, the flame loses it’s oomph.  When I consider how you also have a cost now, how you might be late for something important, and how a relationship might hinge upon your arrival.  How you made a few other mistakes today and this one is just crushing you.  Now, my heart is softer.  I can see past the indignant expression on your face and recognize that it’s not true self righteousness, that, if left undisturbed, would fuel that anger flame in me.  Rather, it’s a mask to hide the shame.  And the flame quiets and shrinks.

I’m choosing to believe, not necessarily that everyone is always doing the best they can, but that in fact, they MIGHT be.  For now, that’s the best I can do.  But it’s a start.      

            

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Brene Brown for the Win

I love Brene Brown.  She’s my author girlfriend.

 

For context, Ryan Gosling is my movie boyfriend, James Spader is my tv sugar daddy boyfriend, Tim Keller is my pastor boyfriend.  It should be noted that these relationships are all entirely one-sided and even so, platonic.  I guess you could just say I admire these people a lot, and the whole significant other thing is kind of stupid.  But that’s how I think of them, so (sticks tongue out.)

Brene Brown is a research professor and author and a really brave woman.  She’s into exploring our emotions, thoughts and behaviors and getting real about how we make up stories about ourselves and others that point us down dangerously dishonest paths.  She talks about shame and blame and how those experiences impact the way we see ourselves and our roles and identities.

I’m reading her book, Rising Strong, and it got me thinking about shame.  And wondering if shame has impacted me.  I don’t feel ashamed, typically.  I mean, if I do something wrong, like overreact to an employee’s mistake or freak out on my daughter over some small misstep, I do feel ashamed, and seek forgiveness and to make amends.  But I move on quickly and generally think of myself as worthy of love and care.  But as I was reading about how shame exists in schools, and how there is an impact on creativity and learning, I began to get flooded with memories of experiences where teachers said things that I experienced as shame.  Some examples:

Kindergarten.  I was playing a game of musical chairs with my class, and I got pushed out of the circle of kids walking around the chairs.  I tried to get back in but the other kids reacted as though I was “cutting.”  My teacher saw me out of the circle and crossly demanded I get back in.  The kids still wouldn’t let me in and I started to cry out of frustration.  She marched over and told me to quit acting like a crybaby.  I distinctly recall filing that information away: Don’t cry.  It makes people think you’re a baby.

Second grade.  We were talking about movies and how what we see in a movie is the end product, but there is so much that goes into making it.  We were discussing how they might have to shoot a scene where a family is eating at a table and they may have to shoot the scene 20 times.  I raised my hand to ask a question about it, and inexplicably my teacher said “Yes, Jessica, we know, the actors have to pretend to eat while they’re shooting.”  I gleaned in that moment that my teacher thought I was a know-it-all.  I also learned in that moment that people make assumptions about what you say before you say it and they can be wrong.  I have kept those two pieces of information close at hand ever since.  I often worry that people think that I think I know everything and I frame my communication accordingly, occasionally saying things like “this probably isn’t right but…”  I know this is dumb, and I only do it when I’m operating out of insecurity.  But it happens from time to time, and it’s fascinating to trace it back to that day, almost 30 years ago.

Fourth grade.  I sat at a table with three other students and one was a boy I was friends with.  He accidentally kicked me under the table, I looked up, and he said “sorry” and we smiled at each other.  From the front of the room I heard “If Jessica and Josh would stop playing footsie, we could get on with the lesson.”  I was so embarrassed and frustrated.  First of all, we weren’t doing anything wrong.  Secondly, it was a sweet moment.  But instead, it became shameful.  I “learned” that teachers disapproved of girls and boys interacting and I took on that position, finding myself judging girls that did anything that resembled flirting with boys for the next couple of years.

Sixth grade.  I wore lipstick to school and my teacher called me up and told me it was inappropriate.  I am happy to report I completely ignored this and continued to wear it.  In 8th grade, I stepped it up to red lipstick and haven’t looked back.

It was right around sixth grade where I realized it was possible to know things teachers don’t know.  Like the time I used the word “stature” in a book report and my teacher marked it wrong because he assumed I meant statue (which wouldn’t have made sense.)  I am so grateful that I broke out of the false reality that adults always know more and know better.  I began making more keen judgments, regarding who was worthy of my respect and admiration.  Just being older than me didn’t get you that entitlement anymore.  I wasn’t being disrespectful; outwardly, I extended the requisite obedience and compliance regardless of how little I actually respected a teacher.  However, I had a very active thought life in my brain regarding whether these educators knew what they were talking about or not.  This probably ventured a little too close to “superiority complex” land, but, overall, I believe I was deeply empowered by this new awareness that things are not always what they seem, that adults have major shortcomings, and that I didn’t have to accept what was fed to me, mindlessly.

Like everything else, you can put teachers along a standard bell curve.  Like everyone else, I’m grateful to have come across a few genuine, intelligent, insightful, caring teachers.  Those people impacted me in a positive way much like the few truly bad apples impacted me in a negative way.

The important part, however, is that we go back, examine these stories, consider what we gleaned from them and decide if it’s useful or not.  We can CHOOSE how much these experiences impact us.  If we heard from a teacher 30 years ago that we were stupid, and we have operated out of that belief, isn’t it time to go back and consider how valid that one person’s perspective at that specific point in time was?  And this doesn’t apply to just teachers.

Your first boyfriend thought your feet were ugly.  Are you still hiding them under a towel at the beach?  Your mom thought the ten pounds you gained freshman year would ruin your life – was she right?  Do you still see her disapproving face when presented with an Oreo?  Did your camp counselor tease you for how you walk?  Do you find yourself adjusting your gait if you think others are watching?

We have to challenge these stories we subconsciously tell ourselves.  These stories that tally up our value and loveableness.  The fact is, from my perspective, you were created by God.  And He created you with loving intention.  Just because your feet, hips or walk don’t meet the weird, current, temporary standard of perfection that 21st century America has decided for you, doesn’t mean you’re somehow less worthy than those who do.  You have to decide what the standard is.  If you want to stick with society’s standards, go for it. But remember, it’s contrived by flawed people like my impatient Kindergarten teacher.  What matters is what you think, and what God thinks.  And you can invite as many caring, safe, loving people into your life, to speak into these things as you want.  But you can decide how much weight their opinion holds.  And you don’t have to be a slave to anyone’s standards.  Challenge those ideas you’ve been operating out of.  Because they could be dead wrong.  And you can be free of them.

Rising Strong is an excellent book.  It’s incredibly challenging if you’ve never thought about this stuff before.  I’ve been thinking about this stuff for 18 or so years, and it is still bringing up new challenges for me, regarding how willing I am to reckon with and rumble with and allow the revolution of my thoughts and feelings to take place.  Emotional honesty and vulnerability are so, so hard.  We all want to hide, to pretend we’re fine, to act like the choices of others don’t hurt us.  We want to run from the tough emotions.  We want to dismiss them and move on.  But there is beauty in the uncertain, sticky, icky places of hard emotions.

Today, Cass went to see if the boy across the street would like to play.  For a few months, they played almost daily and couldn’t get enough of each other.  Recently he has stopped coming over and when she’s gone to see him, he’s been about to leave for an activity, or not feeling well.  Today, he just flat out said he didn’t want to play.  She was devastated!  She came back, quite dejected.  My instinct was to change the subject and get her engaged in something before this turned into a howling, negative mess. But since Rising Strong was literally in my lap, I paused.  I invited her over to sit by me.  I asked her some questions about how she was feeling.  And when she started to cry, sharing that she feels like he just doesn’t like her, I wanted to run – literally wanted to run away from this hard feeling of a 7 year old boy rejecting my daughter.  I wanted to run or yell at someone – his mother maybe?  Yeah, I could yell at her for raising such an insensitive little brat who would hurt my little girl in this atrocious way by refusing to play with her.  She’s better than him, anyway.  He’s out of his league, by far.  Why was she even wasting her time with him?  I’m going to have a party and invite the entire neighborhood and purposely exclude them.

Oh my gosh.  We go to such weird, dark places in pain, don’t we?  But I hung in there.  I stayed with her.  I held her through some tears.  Asked some more questions.  Assured her that she is loved and a fun playmate.  We sat quietly for a long time.  I prayed silently, asking God to bless the moment, to bring some light.  After a while, she slithered off my lap and ran off to play on her own.  I caught a glimpse of her resilience and thanked God for it, because I know almost no characteristic is more valuable than the one that helps you bounce back.  And it is often developed by experiencing loss or disappointment, being surrounded by a support system, and learning that “it’s ok.”  We created a foothold today, with this tiny loss.  We crammed strong metal into the rock face and tested it.  It held.  The rock face is high.  But those footholds make all the difference.

Brene Brown for the win.

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The secrets you don't know about

In the work I do, in helping homeless people overcome addiction, we talk a lot about wearing masks.  We wear masks that communicate to the world “I’m fine.” We do this because saying “I’m not fine” well, it doesn’t usually produce the best results.  We almost immediately regret it and, though exhausted from keeping up the charade, we reach for the “I’m fine” mask, give ourself a pep talk about how our feelings don’t matter, we’re being a baby, we’re being selfish, we should grow up, get tougher, not be so sensitive.  We shake it off and press on.  

But we’re kind of dying a little bit inside.  More and more convinced that no one really knows us, no one understands and no one cares.  We are sure they don’t like our sad, scared, worried selves. We are, when overcome by those less fun, positive emotions, it seems, alone.  We really aren’t acceptable unless we’re functioning, helpful, happy, funny, easy-going, thankful and easy to be around. People seem to love me when I’m in Wonder Woman mode, when nothing can stop me.  But when I’m in “I’ll probably get cancer again in two years and die and my daughter will barely remember me when she’s an adult” mode…yeah, I’m not fun. I’m weird. I’m probably terrifying.  
So, we isolate.  But we want reassurance.  Comfort.  Some signal from the outside world, far away as it feels, that we still matter.  So, we reach for these phones in some feeble effort to connect.  We send a feeble text.  Maybe just a “hi.”  To someone we really want to be safe.  Or we call.  The voicemail we leave (or don’t) is upbeat.  Who wants to call back a giant loser who feels sorry for herself today.  “Just wanted to say hi!” But our hearts sink.  Why isn’t this person answering?  Did I do something wrong?  I thought we were close.  Maybe we aren’t.  Our suspicion that we kind of suck is growing.  
We look to Facebook for, what? Evidence the world hasn’t forgotten about us?  The unlikely possibility that someone said something nice about us today?  Posted something cute or funny to our timeline.  Only to find that a couple of our friends have gotten together for cheesecake without us.  They know I love cheesecake!  What. The. Hell.  We invite someone else to lunch.  They can’t go.  We feel like we’re drowning.

Our interactions become less confident.  We withdraw.  We second guess our every move.  We seem to leave disaster in our wake.  No wonder no one wants to be around us.  It’s actually kind of funny when this happens to me.  I swear it just gets worse and worse.  Since everyone hates me, I consider moving to Nebraska – people seem nice there.  Maybe I should become a monk or a nun.  In one of those cool mountain top places where they make beer, maybe? 
This happens to me about twice a year.  For about 2 days.  I convince myself I’m toxic and unlovable.  I take everything personally.  I resent everyone and I sit and pout like Jonah after the whole whale incident when God has compassion on the people of Ninevah.  As Jonah is pouting, God provides a branch leaf thing over his head for shade.  It’s a whole metaphor where God points out Jonah’s lack of compassion but I like the branch.  It’s this glimpse into who God is when we’re, as Jonah says, “so angry I could die!”  Don’t you relate to that?  My final straw is usually following a series of interactions that deflate me, the deodorant breaks into 12 pieces and falls on the floor or I get 17 red lights in a row when I’m already late.  Usually my shade branch leaf thing from God comes in the form of one really understanding person.  And it’s usually someone who feels like this pretty often.  For me, it’s like I’m off my game.  For them, it’s a constant battle against depression, anxiety and crippling insecurity.  I’m not talking about attention seeking, overly needy, constant drama llamas.  I’m talking about the people you generally enjoy, respect and care for.  Some of them are secretly really sad.  Or anxious.  They have counseling appointments and prescriptions.  They have secret, huge, overwhelming problems. And they spend a lot of time saying “I’m fine. How are you?” 

Do you know these people?  No?  Umm.  I have to tell you something.  There are people, friends of yours, who would never tell you they’re hurting.  Would never trust you with their pain.  Because you don’t seem like you want to know.  They tell you a little and you move away instead of closer.  

We’re so self protective when it comes to other peoples’ messes. Is it because we’re too busy?  So tired from the 37 things we need to do before bed?  Or maybe we’ve finally got our own mess under control for the moment?  We only like people when they’re fun?  We’re scared of other people’s pain.  

If all of this is foreign to you and especially if you want to dismiss it, then you should probably acknowledge that people don’t trust you with their pain.  

I have a couple of astoundingly emotionally intelligent people in my life that if I give them just enough of a peek into my momentary mess, they know what to do.  The empathy just floods the place.  Just from that step of them moving closer instead of backing up and  slinking out the door…just by staying with me…this reminds me of what’s true.  That I’m God’s kid.  That I’m loved.  That I’m ok.  That I’ll get my mojo back.  That I’m still lovable when I’m a mess.  

I want to be this for others, too.  I succeed occasionally – have glorious moments of getting to love someone well in a time of grief, fear or shame.  But I  mostly fail.  I slink out the door, sometimes, too.  It’s tempting to try to control things so that your mess is the only one you have to deal with.  It feels overwhelming to invite more messes in.  

But it’s one of the great paradoxes.  Mostly, dwelling in the collective messiness together helps all parties involved.  Now, if you’re codependent and constantly running toward every mess, that’s a different problem – I’m talking to the rest of us.  The isolators, the people with boundaries a mile high.  Those whose first thought is “not my problem.” 

The best thing I’ve learned about the “I’m fine” mask is this:  if everyone loves you when you’re fine, when you’re the best version of yourself you can muster – if they only love you when you’re wearing your mask, you have to be really honest with yourself about something. They don’t love you. They just love the mask.

Can we try to stop requiring people we claim to love to wear masks?  Can we welcome an occasional breakdown as a moment of authenticity that we’re honored to be a part of? Can we try to create conditions that really invite people to be themselves?  Because that, I’m convinced, is what really helps heal people.  

The work of people like John Lynch, (grace) Dr. Brene Brown (shame, blame, belonging) and Dr. Henry Cloud (healthy relating, leadership) can help us get better, healthier and more authentic.

Here are some good books:

SAFE PEOPLE by Henry Cloud

DARING GREATLY by Brene Brown
THE CURE by John Lynch and others