Jelaine and I watched ‘Almost Famous‘ on a snowy day earlier this week, and a line delivered by Frances McDormand has stuck with me since! It’s a diluted version of Basil King’s “Go at it boldly, and you’ll find unexpected forces closing round you and coming to your aid.”:
That’s quite a claim. Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid. It’s too simple, yet too fantastical, to be true…
Or is it?
To be bold is to be confident or courageous; it’s a state of being that seems to require a sense of direction, a sense of purpose. Boldness isn’t recklessness; it isn’t wild abandon without rhyme or reason. Boldness is moving toward a goal when the outcome, regardless of how badly you want it to turn in your favor, looks hazy.
Boldness is the ability to take a chance, however risky, on the voice inside that dares to strive.
That little voice inside each and every one of us is bold. It’s the part of us that nobody can see or touch or judge, leaving it free to dream and wonder. Boldness is vulnerability. That little voice is who we really are; it’s all the goodness and wonderment and hope we have inside, all the things we grow to be scared of exposing.
But the essence of Bold is to be unafraid!
Bold is allowing our goodness to shine, regardless of the hurt we’ve endured. Being bold is forgetting past disappointment; letting go of hurt and defensiveness; seeing that we’re meant for love and prosperity; and understanding that this goodness inside each of us is who we really are. To be bold is to express ourselves from our very cores.
It’s no wonder, then, that mighty forces will come to our aid. Fortune favors the bold, right? But there’s something to the idea behind the sayings and cliches… If bold is being our true self, then we are acting without agenda or false pretense and there’s no backlash to fear (sometimes people call it karma), and that leaves no other option, really: to succeed. To be bold is to fulfill our true purpose.
So, be bold. Be brave. Be unafraid. Be good. Be yourself. Be.