get your ass kicked

“If you are not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, I am not interested in or open to your feedback.” – Brené Brown

Lots of people enjoy giving feedback.

Did I say lots? I mean…

LOTS of people enjoy giving feedback… on everything.

It can be hard to tune them out.  Because you care.  You care about them.  You care about others.  You care about the greater picture.

But when you’re assessing who you should listen to, what feedback you should receive, what advice you should take part in, take it from someone in the arena.   

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." – Theodore Roosevelt