Live Inspired Vlog 194: There's Always One

Don’t Let the Critics Keep You From Daring Greatly

Well good morning, my friends!

Welcome to Live Inspired with John O’Leary on a chilly Wednesday morning, as we get the trash picked up outside and the kids picked up inside.

I’m delighted to spend a little bit of my morning with you, and I’m grateful that you’re checking this out.

As a speaker, you have the opportunity of not only learning about organizations, of spending time with clients, of meeting individuals afterwards, but also oddly enough, there’s an opportunity at the very end (about a week or so later), to receive feedback from all the individuals that were in the audience.

Now candidly for our organization and for the work that we do, the feedback is traditionally, extraordinarily positive.

It’s been awesome!

We have a whole lot of people that are moved and inspired and elevated by the work we do.

And yet…

And yet, there’s always one.

And sometimes there are ten.

But there’s always one, two, a few folks that have different feedback to offer.

There’s always a few folks that are negative. There are always a few folks that say, “It missed the mark.”

I remember one time a guy said, “Heard it all before.” Kind of yawning as he said it.

Heard the whole story before, even though he’d never heard the story at all before.

But when I see feedback, for me because I take things very personally actually, instead of looking at the five stars and reading about how people were moved and changed and elevated and encouraged, I find myself frequently, frequently, frequently focused on the one negative comment.

I think it’s important that we review negative comments. That we take in all feedback so that we can become better versions of ourselves going forward.

But it’s also true that we’re never going to make everyone happy.

You’re never going to make everyone in your family happy around the Thanksgiving table.

You’re never going to make everybody in your classroom happy as a teacher.

You’re never going to make everybody happy as a floor nurse.

You’re never going to make everybody happy in your organization.

And when you’re speaking to a couple hundred, or a couple thousand, individuals who come from all different kinds of backgrounds, you’re never going to make everybody happy.

And still, I find myself focusing on these negative reviews, which brings me, which brings me, to a quote that Brene Brown made extraordinarily famous.

But you knew it before Brene Brown made it big time.

So I’m going to read it to you now and then I’m going to tell you where you can learn a little more about this quote and the beauty within it.

The quote is from Theodore Roosevelt. I believe he wrote it in 1910, but it speaks to me about the critics in the room.

Because there is always one in any room, in any size room. There’s always at least one.

I need to hear this quote loud and clear today, and I think maybe some of us watching right now, listening to my voice, you may need it too.

So here we go:

It’s not the critic that counts.

Not the man who points out (or the woman) how the strong person stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena. Whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood.

Who strives valiantly, who errors (yes, we do), who comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.

But who does not actually strives to the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions.

Who spends him and herself in a worthy cause.

Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if she or he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

So that his and her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory, nor defeat.

That from Theodore Roosevelt. That brought to our attention in a great book called Daring Greatly.

And that brought back to my attention last week when I had the opportunity, I think of a lifetime, to interview a woman named Brene Brown.

She’s someone that I have looked up to as a researcher, as a thought-leader, as a speaker, as a human being for an awfully long time.

And I didn’t have to look up at her this week. I got to look right at her because she was on our Live Inspired podcast with John O’Leary.

So, my friends, as you receive feedback throughout your day, from your children about the lunch, about breakfast, about dinner, about the house…

from the ladies and gentlemen you work with or serve with or speak in front of.

It is important that we remember our job is not to control all the traffic, all the noise that comes back at us, but our boldness, our courage, our daring greatly to actually approach the arena, to walk in, and to strive forward to make a difference for those that we choose to serve in whatever work we do.

So I want to thank you for daring greatly today.

I want to thank you for wanting to learn a little bit more about Brene Brown and the Live Inspired community.

You can go to the following link: https://johnolearyinspires.com/2018/10/brene-brown-dare-to-lead/.

And my friends, I want to let you know you’re going to receive some feedback today that may not light you up.

I encourage you to receive it, to become better from it, but not to be weighed down by it.

Because you are in the arena and you are doing great things.

So for this time, and until next time, this is John O’Leary.

And today is your day.

Live Inspired.

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