BE BOLD.
Ever since 2024 I have been living life like seasons of a series. The first one was “Fail forward” and 2025’s title is “Be bold” - But what do I mean with that and why did I not keep the first motto?
Let’s dive in!
Being bold was something I was most scared of. Taking up space, standing up for myself, and god forbid, saying NO among many other things often seemed somewhat reckless to me.
“Don’t you feel it’s rude to take up space?”
“Who do you think you are?” “
Why would you believe that this would work out?”
“You’re disappointing people by saying no”
——-
So in 2025 I wanted to ask myself “Now what would happen if I did put myself first"?
What if things worked out?
What if regardless of my doubts, I try anyway?
To me, being bold means to try to be as authentically ME as I can be and that, dear folks, if you excuse my language:
scares the living shit out of me.
Being bold means that in a group full of people, I will stand up, announce that I am tired and that my social battery has run out an will thus leave, regardless of the fun, time or event.
Being bold means that I dream big, envision myself living that dream and then go after it with the curiosity of a child who is not yet scared of failure or pressure. And even if I did end up failing, the goal was to stay curious and to try.
Being bold means learning how to say no. Saying no to additional work, no to draining relationships, etc. Therefore, I am saying yes to better communication, understanding my own boundaries, and respecting my time and energy.
Being bold means daring to be “overdressed”, but honestly I just thought that dress was cute.
Being bold does not mean that I do not care about what others think. I do. But I give the opinion of others less value if a) I was not seeking their opinion (and yes, you are entitled to have your opinion and yes, by being online I am aware that I will be perceived by others) and b) if the opinion comes from people I barely know or have never met in my life.
Why not fail forward?
Words have a heavy weight for me and the motto “fail forward” was perfect for kickstarting my journey of (re-)discovering myself in 2024. However, it dawned on me that failure was somewhat required for the theme to be fitting. It was fail forward and not succeed forward after all. And while not every idea bore fruit and thus failed, I also did not anticipate to succeed at all.
Which is exactly how I found myself hosting more gigs than I had ever before, and did not know how to handle my unexpected full schedule, traveling and meeting many new people.
I wanted to shift my mindset to seek the positive instead, so I new that a season one would come to an end and would be renewed for another one under a different title.
And this is why:
Stay curious. BE BOLD,
Soso