
“If we are brave enough often enough, we will fall.”
– Brené Brown
You are going to fail. Yep. It’s going to happen eventually. And it’s going to hurt.
Gee wiz Emma! That’s REAL motivational! Thank you so much for that!
*chuckle* Okay, Okay, Here’s the rest of the quote:

If we are brave enough often enough, we will fall. Daring is not saying, “I’m willing to risk failure.” Daring is saying, “I know I will eventually fail and I’m still all in.”
I’ve never met a brave person who hasn’t known disappointment, failure, even heartbreak … It’s about having the courage to show up when you can’t control the outcome.”
– Brené Brown
Learning How to Fall
I was watching a show with my kids about teen athletes from different sports learning how to do each other’s sports. I had no idea how much I would love it! In All Round Campion Season 3 Episode 2 they were doing sport climbing and at 17minutes 53 seconds they were learning the first skill in sport climbing: how to fall.
In the video, the instructor teaches them how to fall in a way that keeps them from breaking their arm. You can’t rock climb for a while if you break your arm. And I think metaphorically speaking, there are daring things I could fail at, which would put me out of commission for a while, if not permanently. Actually, in the video, they fell in a way that made it very easy to get back up and start climbing again. They put down a mat, and fell on their bum, and rolled on their back, so it didn’t hurt as much. And then they practiced falling. It’s easier to have the courage to climb if you know what to do when you fall.
How This Relates to Keto
I really don’t recommend binging on purpose. It won’t help anyone have greater agency, or courage, or self compassion, or resiliency. What I do recommend is making plans: plans to prevent falling, plans to stop from hitting rock bottom, and plans on how to recover from a fall, even rock bottom. However, a fall, just like an emergency, can destroy the best laid out plans if we haven’t practiced them. So practice them a few times. For some it’s helpful to write down the plan and post it in their trigger places, like the pantry, fridge, dashboard of their car, or desk at work. For others just mentally going over the plan in their head is enough.
Sometimes the plan looks like a harness – A bit uncomfortable, and looks silly to others, but it supports you and gives you a way to sit and rest when you are tired. Sometimes that plan looks like having a climbing buddy, or someone to belay for you. Sometimes that plan includes a coach who can tell you where the hand holds are (I just had to put that in there ^_^). Sometimes the plan is to put in multiple anchors so when you fall, it’s not that far. Sometimes the plan is a safety net, or a padded mat. And sometimes the plan is giving yourself time to heal and recover before you try again.
If you are brave enough often enough, you will fall.
But you can fall gloriously! And you can get back up again.

[…] I realize that I just experienced a fall. It looks like a pretty bad one too. I’m going to need time to heal. No drastic changes. No […]