Are You Being as Brave as You Want to Be?
Steve Jobs famously said:“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” (Stanford Commencement, 2005)
When I noticed the #2016 trend, I went back and looked at the images I’d saved from that year, and this quote immediately came to mind. What’s more interesting than a #humblebrag list of what I did in 2016—and more useful—is what becomes visible when you look back a full decade and connect the dots.
That year, I made the biggest investment in myself I’d ever made (outside of grad school): a year-long leadership coach training program. Nights and weekends were filled with study, practice, and pro-bono client work. At the same time, I was working full-time as a science impact storyteller and field-produced a two-week international film shoot for National Geographic and the TED Prize, and conducted interviews at Telluride MountainFilm Festival with scientists and explorers. I could go on, but the experiences themselves weren’t the point.
The capacities they built were: More responsibility. Greater tolerance for uncertainty. Resilience under pressure. That’s what shaped everything that followed.
What I can see now is how many pivotal moments that year required choosing honesty, especially after years of hiding professionally. I stopped staying quiet in meetings just because I wasn’t sure I could keep my voice steady while saying what I actually thought. I said yes to opportunities knowing my anxiety might spike, and I was transparent about that with colleagues instead of masking it. I started to feel more free and more myself from being real. That mattered more than any single accomplishment.
As humans, we’re wired to default to the familiar because it signals safety on a nervous system level. Saying yes to the unfamiliar can be deeply uncomfortable, but it’s also how resilience and self-trust are built.
Which makes me curious for anyone reading this:
➤ Where in your life or work are you choosing familiarity primarily because it feels safer or more comfortable, not because it’s actually aligned?
➤ Are you being as brave as you want to be?
➤ What would it look like to treat uncertainty as training?
If you’re in a season where the dots don’t yet connect, that doesn’t mean they won’t. It may simply mean you’re building something that takes longer to see, but lasts longer once it does. The natural byproducts that come from expressing yourself are more opportunities, connections, and fulfillment.
