Bold Revisited: What Does It Mean to Be Bold?

The word bold can take on many meanings.  It can be used to describe just about anything that comes to mind.  A bold gesture, color, choice, even just a simple remark.  With each changing association, it also has many nuances. 

For example, a bold choice of color for some may not be for others.  I have a dear friend whose favorite color is purple. I don't recall ever seeing her without something purple as part of her ensemble. Another friend seems always to be in black or navy or brown. Purple would never be considered a bold color choice for one, but for the other, it would.

It's a combination of the thing itself and the person (or place) that seems to create the opportunity for boldness to be borne.

That being the case, how then can we recognize bold? Bearing in mind that it still has context for the person, here are some thoughts to help:

Bold means brave.  Bold is almost always about change, and change requires courage. It takes someone brave to make a change so remarkable we would call it bold. When we take bold steps for change, we are at our bravest.

Bold means original.  This speaks to that "it" factor of the person, but it also speaks to change. When we are at our creative self, original expression grows, which is another way we express boldness.

Bold means limitless. This may be my favorite element of bold because the change is about stretching and going beyond our norm or boundaries. When we decide to remove all the reasons we can't and grasp that we can, we are living in our boldness.

Bold means to dream.  It isn't enough to be limitless. We also must allow that freedom to take us to our dreams for ourselves, our families, our work, our world. This is where boldness often shows up in our aspirations and goals.

B-Brave

O-Original

L-Limitless

D-Dream

 We are made to be bold. We are meant to grow and change.

Unfortunately, though, as Steven Pressfield observed: "Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us."

In other words, too many times, we aren't choosing bold. Is it time to revisit that in your life and work?

If you were to decide today to embrace a bold change that required you to be brave, original, and limitless to achieve your dream, what would that be?

Perhaps it's time to reclaim your unlived life by revisiting bold. Take that first brave step.

If in doubt, remember this:  Yes, you can.