Fearless Congruence

As I am a mathematician and software developer with a fierce love of clear definitions, let me give you one now: 

> Fearless Congruence is consistently performing your next right action of integrity.

It requires a willingness to face and accept yourself in all your glory and faults.

It requires doing the work to know what you value and treasure.

Finally, It requires a commitment to action based on those values.

Just the fact that you're reading this right now means you're on the path to Fearless Congruence. Those who make personal development a way of life are those who find themselves courageous in the face of terror, and congruent to their highest self.

> "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

> I need you to know the joy of victory and the satisfaction of failure.

For that to happen, and for you to get the most out of this book, I need you to commit, *right now*, to be in that arena with your face marred by dust and sweat and blood, your mind fully engaged, and your heart on the line. 

I need you to commit to becoming Fearlessly Congruent, whatever that looks like for you.

Say these commitments to yourself. Out loud. Use your voice to command your soul and spur yourself into action.

My goal in this short book is to give you three frameworks that I have used personally to become Fearlessly Congruent.

Why is Fearless Congruence so powerful?

It is my belief that the greatest emotional and mental pain that you will ever feel is due to incongruence with yourself.

You say or do something, but you don't mean it.

You act one way but *know* at the bottom of your heart that you should be doing the complete opposite thing.

You go along with the crowd when you know you shouldn't.

You promise a particular course of action to a coworker, but you go back on your word.

Broken lives and incongruent souls are built by *should have done*. And the worst part about all of it? Every time you act against your inner voice you feel shame. Shame that you didn't strive. Shame that you didn't have more courage. Shame that you lied so blatantly. So much shame that it weighs on you. Crushes you. And eventually, you numb the feeling because you just can't handle it anymore.

Fearless Congruence is powerful because it removes these burdens and renders an individual free to act as their highest self. A person who is Fearlessly Congruent is consistently makes their next right action of integrity. Which means they stick to their word. They speak only the truth, or as Jordan Peterson says: At least they don't lie. They speak up when they know a course of action is incorrect, and they refuse to go along with the crowd that condones those incorrect actions.

I felt shame for not striving to rise above the perceived limitations I had in my company. I felt shame for not speaking up when I felt our path was veering us away from our long-term goal.

For a long time, I had caged myself into believing that this was the only path available to me. That because I had given so much to my brother and my company, that I couldn't step away and onto a different path.

Breaking out of my self-imposed cage took courage, effort, focus, energy, and intention. 

It will take the same from you. 

The rewards were satisfaction, enduring peace, soulful connection, amazing companionship, joy, and a realization that it is *ok* to want to move beyond your current Arena and into a new one.

You may describe your rewards differently than I do once you have them, but they will still be a vast treasure for you.

So let us begin our adventure.

Let us step into the Arena.