Lesson Objectives

• Examine how your early experiences of vulnerability shaped your understanding of what it means to experience uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.
• Describe the relationships between vulnerability, courage, and full engagement and how those affect the way we live, love, and lead.
• Identify the potential barriers you may face when practicing vulnerability and how the practices of laughter, song, and dance help build connection.

Reading Assignment 

Daring Greatly - Chapter 2

Exercise: Vulnerability Sentence Stems

01. Vulnerability is...

02. Vulnerability feels like...

03. I grew up believing vulnerability was...

04. The cultural messages and expectations about vulnerability I feel are (social community or organizational)...

05. Does anything surprise you about your answers? If courage requires vulnerability, what are some of the issues you will need to work on?

Exercise: Arena Anthems

Taken from Gifts of Imperfection:

Laughter, song, and dance create emotional and spiritual connection; they remind us of the one thing that truly matters when we are searching for comfort, celebration, inspiration, or healing: We are not alone.

From the eight-track tapes my parents played in our station wagon to my stack of vinyl records from the 1970s to my mixed-tapes from the ’80s and ’90s to the iTunes playlists on my new computer, my life has a soundtrack. And the songs from that soundtrack can stir memories and provoke emotion in me like nothing else can.

I realize that not everyone shares the same passion for music, but the one thing that is universal about song is its ability to move us emotionally – sometimes in ways we don’t even think about. For example, I was recently watching the director’s cut of a movie. It showed a very dramatic scene from the film with music and then without music. I couldn’t believe the difference.

The first time I watched the film, I didn’t even notice that music was playing. I was just on the edge of my seat waiting and hoping that things would turn out the way I wanted them to. When I watched it without music, the scene was flat. There wasn’t the same level of anticipation. Without music it felt factual, not emotional.

Whether it’s a hymn at church, the national anthem, a college fight song, a song on the radio, or the carefully scored soundtrack to a movie, music reaches out and offers us connection – something we really can’t live without.

In this exercise, I want you to find your arena anthem - a song that will inspire you to stay brave when the gremlins start getting to you or when you start to doubt your ability to stay vulnerable through the tough parts. 

You might choose just one song or you may choose to put together a soundtrack or playlist. Either way, make space to explore the role of music in your life and how it can shape your experience of stepping into the arena.

01. What did you pick as your arena anthem(s) and why did you pick it? 

Please consider sharing your anthems in the lesson discussion, below. I've made some great playlists based on the arena anthems people have shared with me!