Freedom lies in being bold. – Robert Frost
Get up, dust yourself off, and get back on, or you will forever be timid of horses. Without your boldness around the horse, you will have lost the freedom to ride.
What does that mean?
Let’s start by looking at the opposite. As opposite of free that I can think of is being a prisoner. By definition they have no freedom. How bold are they? Other than the occasional ‘bold and daring escape attempt,’ bold is usually only seen in the past tense.
Now, consider the opposite of bold. Timid seems one of the better matches, and the timid are rarely very free. The timid are held in check by those who are less timid. They are ordered around, and obey out of fear. That doesn’t sound very free does it?
So we’ve seen how lacking one, the other is rarely seen. Now consider the possibility of both. When one is free, one has the choice of being bold. By being bold, one may maintain their freedom despite the attempts of others to apply restrictions. Thus, each of the two support and reinforce the other. At least that’s how it seems to me.
Why is boldness important?
How likely are you to get something you don’t ask for? Rule #1 in sales is to ask for the sale. You can give a killer presentation, but if you ask “How did you like the presentation?” you will likely get a favorable response, but no sale. If you ask how many they want to order, you are half way to the sale.
Without boldness, how do you get a date? Without boldness, how hard is it to get a promotion or a raise? With that said, there is with boldness, as with nearly all other things, as much a problem with too much as there is with too little. Where, exactly, this line is drawn will vary with each of us, so I will not try to set an exact place for that line. Experience and your temperament will have to be your guide.
Where can I apply this in my life?
In my experience, everyone is timid in some aspect of their life, and that timidity typically comes from uncertainty. Those with certainty (well founded or not) tend to be bolder than those without. That certainty can come from experience, from reading, from observation, or an inflated sense of self.
Unfortunately, certainty can disappear quite rapidly, under less than ideal conditions. That is the source of the old quote about getting back on the horse that threw you. A cowboy cannot afford to be afraid of his, or any other horse. If you fell off (or were bucked off), you have to face your fears, and get back on. Certainty is restored, cowboy is back up.
Grab some paper and make a list of areas in your life where you are very bold. Try to put down at least five or six, even if you have to move down to areas where you’re just relatively bold. Now do the same for areas in your life where you are much less bold, timid even. Again try to get at least five or six of them.
Now, go back to the list of boldness. For each of them, write down why you believe you are bold in that area. What do you know, what have you done, or whatever else it might be that contributes to your boldness. When you are done with the bold list, try the same on the timid list. What don’t you know, what haven’t you tried, or whatever else it might be that contributes to your timidity.
Now look to see if there is any pattern in the bold or in the timid sections. For me, bold areas all had confidence due to knowledge or experience (or similar experience). Timid areas all had lack of confidence due to lack of knowledge or lack of experience. How about you? Is there a pattern to your boldness and timidity?
With a pattern, there is something simple to build on. If you have a pattern (mine being knowledge and experience), you can work on becoming bolder. If you are timid around large animals (horses, for example), and you have a knowledge and experience pattern, you might want to learn more about horses, and perhaps spend some time with a pony. With knowledge and some similar experience, you might find yourself a bit less timid around horses.
If you can figure out what helps you be bold, you can apply it to the places where you are not. With boldness now at your command, what fear will you have when someone tries to hold you back, or curtail your freedom?
From: Twitter, @billdouglas
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/robertfros151833.html
Photo by Thowra_uk
Happy Birthday to Robert Frost, Born on 26 March, 1874
This may be another made-up or misattributed quote. A search engine turned up over a quarter million hits on the quote, and it is very widely spread. However, no one seems to be able to cite exactly where or when it was stated. If it was in his poems, I imagine the citation would be trivial. Absent that, it might have been in an interview or in conversation, and therefore, not noted. However, it seemed an interesting enough topic, so I went with it anyway.
