The older that I get the more important I believe that it is to live my life full out because even if I am lucky enough to live another 40 years (yup-that would make me 99) I realize how much more precious my time is here on Earth.

And I don’t want to squander it by playing small anymore.Side view of pretty woman holding head back smiling with hair flowing.

Been there, done that and it is borrrring!!!

I would much rather embrace life, take chances, enjoy the journey, let go of attachment to the outcome, express my unique spirit in the world, stand in my power, share the best parts of me.

What about you? Do you feel that way?

I was just listening to an interview with Brene Brown and she touched on this very subject. She calls it living with whole heartedness and she talks about the opposite of this which is living with half heartedness:

Half heartedness is when you say to yourself “I won’t put my whole heart into something and I will hedge my bets, so that if I fail I won’t be as hurt”. Brene Brown

This of course, is not true. It is fear based thinking-allowing our fear to determine our destiny. It is the stuff that regrets are made of. It also makes us feel as though we somehow robbed ourselves of our own magnificence because we will always wonder……

“What if I would have put my whole heart and soul into something. What might have been? Who might I have become?”

Fear of failure is a passion killer and it stops us from owning our magnificence.

Of course no one likes to fail but if we are going to go after something in our life, wouldn’t it be really awesome if we created from a place of abundance and possibility rather than from a place of fear and scarcity?

Wouldn’t it be great if both our head and our heart and our spirit joined forces for a common goal?

Wow-imagine the power in that!!!

When we do that, I believe that we actually stretch who we become from the inside/out and this is where true transformation happens-the real magic. We become creators of our life. We believe in our resourcefulness and we listen to our inner wisdom-that part of us that goes beyond our thinking mind.

We grow into the person who can achieve great success. Every time we do this we see more and more of what is possible and we see that we have the resources to make our dreams come true.

That, my friend, is the golden nugget.

When we live our life wholeheartedly we find our power!

When we fail as a result of a half hearted attempt, it is much worse because the pain of failure is exacerbated by the pain of not taking the risk-by playing small, by disappointing ourselves, by not living to our full potential.

At least with a whole hearted attempt at something, when we “fail” we can feel proud of the fact that we gave it everything, and despite our hurt we can feel great about the fact that we put ourselves out there. We were brave. We grew ourselves. We found strength in vulnerability.

And truly we have not failed-we have grown and we are that much closer to creating what we want. It is merely a detour.

Living wholeheartedly is living in resonance with what is important to you.

It is all about creating your one precious life your way and not the way that society would define you. It is about being visible instead of hiding in the shadows. It is about using your voice in the face of adversity and push back. It is about speaking your truth and letting go of what others might think. It is walking your talk. It is putting it all out there.

And it comes from a place of love and abundance rather than scarcity and lack.

Whether you are creating something exciting in your business, wanting to head up a charity, write a book, travel more, build a relationship or whatever it is that you want more of in your life…..whatever it is that you want to create…….be brave …….and do it with your whole heart!

I would love to hear from you. Where have you gone after something with half of a heart? Where have you played wholeheartedly? What did you learn from either or both? Please share in the comments below