Failure. Vulnerability. Courage. These are hard things to write about. (And I’m not going to try!) Brene Brown, does a wonderful job, however, in Rising Strong. (She also wrote Daring Greatly, which I blogged about here.) She has done a ton of research, but her writing is highly readable and full of stories.

 My biggest take-away from this book was her description of the stories we tell ourselves vs. the reality. (We think someone is mad at us, and they just have a headache.) Now, this concept is not really that new to me. However, Brene shared a story about herself that has already shaped several conversations I’ve had. In a conflict with her husband, Brene uses the phrase “The story I’m telling myself is. . . .” as a way to start the conversation. Then her husband is able to tell his perspective, which is completely different than the story she had told herself. I love how this phrase can make it {slightly} easier to take the step of vulnerability and start talking about difficult things.