“For me, that strong back is grounded confidence and boundaries. The soft front is staying vulnerable and curious. The mark of a wild heart is living out these paradoxes in our lives and not giving into the either/or BS that reduces us. It’s showing up in our vulnerability and our courage, and, above all else, being both fierce and kind.”
― Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
― Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
“Shame is not a compass for moral behavior. It’s much more likely to drive destructive, hurtful, immoral, and self-aggrandizing behavior than it is to heal it. Why? Because where shame exists, empathy is almost always absent. That’s what makes shame dangerous. The opposite of experiencing shame is experiencing empathy. The behavior that many of us find so egregious today is more about people being empathyless, not shameless.”
― Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
― Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
“know I’m living outside my values when I am…drum roll…this is a huge issue for me…resentful. Resentment is my barometer and my early warning system. It’s the canary in the coal mine. It shows up when I stay quiet in order not to piss off someone. It shows up when I put work before my well-being, and it blows the doors off the hinges when I’m not setting good boundaries.”
― Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
― Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
“Self-compassion is an easy list to write, and a hard list to live. For me, it’s all about sleep, healthy food, exercise, and connection. It’s what I mentioned in the concussion story—the best predictor of living into my values is being in physical, spiritual, and emotional shape.”
― Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
― Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
“One of the signature mistakes with empathy is that we believe we can take our lenses off and look through the lenses of someone else. We can’t. Our lenses are soldered to who we are. What we can do, however, is honor people’s perspectives as truth even when they’re different from ours. That’s a challenge if you were raised in majority culture—white, straight, male, middle-class, Christian—and you were likely taught that your perspective is the correct perspective and everyone else needs to adjust their lens. Or, more accurately, you weren’t taught anything about perspective taking, and the default—My truth is the truth—is reinforced by every system and situation you encounter.”
― Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
― Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
Jessica’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Jessica’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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