Recently, I reviewed the book “Daring Greatly” by Brené Brown. I enjoyed the book enough that I got another of her books from the library. This one I suspected might be more relevant to my current situation, and I was correct. “Rising Strong: How The Ability to Reset Transforms the Way we Live, Love, Parent and Lead” by Brené Brown continues talking about vulnerability by focusing on the inevitable outcome of it and what to do about it.

Perhaps the most important point that this book makes is that taking risks and being vulnerable will lead to being knocked down and being hurt. She says that clearly and I agree. There is no may in that statement. If you take risks in life or with people sometimes you will be hurt. That is what makes it a risk. But there is another important point. You are strong enough to survive that and keep going, and this book explores how to get up and keep going when you are knocked down.

“Rising Strong” felt far more like Brené Brown wrote it for me than “Daring Greatly” which felt as if she wrote it for someone like me but who had kids and a boss. This didn’t ignore those things. She has kids and talks a lot about how the things in this book affect them, and the things that happened to her as a child, and how they affected her. I particularly liked the point about the need to be able to both give and receive. The ability to receive is something I have often struggled with and her belief that being a better receiver will make you a better giver makes sense.

This does cover some ground also covered in “Daring Greatly” and there are a few points in it that make a lot more sense if you have already read that. So while I would recommend this book more in some ways I still think you should probably read that first.

There is a proverb that states “Fall down seven times, stand up eight“. The writer of that proverb understood the same thing Brené Brown makes clear in this book. You will fall down. You will make mistakes. Other people will fail you and you will fail other people. There are only two solutions. You can hide from risk or you can learn to stand up. The former is a terrible and painful way to lead your life that will end in pain and loneliness. And yet falling is also painful, but it’s a different pain. It is the type that strengthens you and helps you to learn that you can take a blow and keep going. It's the type of strength we all need because we're all going to take a blow eventually.