The Power of Living an Audacious Life

Audacity is essential to entrepreneurs, artists, inventors, and other creators and innovators. This posting, written by my colleague and collaborator Julie van Amerongen, celebrates Audacity.

Jeff

“Success is the child of audacity.” ~Benjamin Disraeli

I hope that whoever writes my eulogy will include the word audacious. Audacious! It makes me want to throw my head back and laugh. However you want to define it, it’s juicy! Full of fearless daring, willing to take risks, adventuresomeness, intrepidity, heedless of restraints, marked by originality and verve, vitality, vim, vigor, dash, spirit, life, animation, get-up-and go… Audacious people know who they are and they act “as if…,” creating a persona that is matched with action. I certainly aspire to be more audacious more of the time. Don’t you?!

I’ll readily admit that I can be a bit of an adrenaline junkie with activities like jumping from bridges, cliffs and planes, running marathons or backpacking in remote locations. To me though, those things fall under a narrow piece of the audacious umbrella. What’s really audacious is taking risks every day. Audacious people are marked by their motivation and confidence, making bold moves and letting their original and creative selves shine. They are firmly on the road to where they want to go.

Some lessons on embodying audaciousness:

• Think of someone who has inspired you and say to yourself, if they can do it, then so can I. My friend Chelsea says she thinks of me when she runs on her treadmill. I think of Greg Mortensen from the Three Cups of Tea story in my work. There are so many more!
• Think about something that makes you feel confident every day. It will help loosen the stranglehold that fear has on your audacious impulses.
• Laugh more. Find some jokes online or go to a comedy show. I’m not actually sure this will make you more audacious, but I think audaciousness is about claiming what is authentically you. Laughter triggers my intuitive joy so it must be good for building the audacity muscle.

“I look forward to growing old and wise and audacious.” ~ Glenda Jackson

LINKS:

Barack Obama’s #1 best selling book: Audacity of Hope

Greg Mortensen’s audacious adventure: Three Cups of Tea

Audacious Film about Audacious Gathering.

Jeff: In their best-selling business book Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras identify one of the keys to great companies is that of having a “big, hairy, audacious goal.” While having such a goal does not ensure success, it does set the stage and open the possibility for making a profound difference.