Hello , my fellow brave human

When did you last feel genuinely inspired yet utterly powerless at the same time?

The last fortnight has left me with a cocktail of emotions I’m still processing: insignificant yet inspired, helpless yet oddly hopeful, and underneath it all, a rage I can’t quite shake.

A week ago, I met Maria, the Russian lead singer of Pussy Riot and former gulag inhabitant. Then on Saturday, my daughter and I spent the day at the Beyond Borders International Festival at Traquair, surrounded by authors, journalists, human rights lawyers, and fired-up young people from Peebles High School - all united by one thing: a refusal to stay silent in a world on fire.

The conversations were stark. A eminent journalist now writing fiction about Gaza because she can’t tell the truth in her reporting. A lawyer representing Palestine Action protesters. A Kashmiri author whose book has been banned in India. And there was Jeremy Corbyn, still fighting the good fight.

What struck me wasn’t just their individual courage, but the collective picture they painted: our institutions are paralysed. Corporates lead the conversation. This paralysis is enabling the fast forward of destruction.

Here we have a human rights lawyer leading our country, yet that same government is poised to sign a £2bn deal with Israel’s largest arms company, Elbit. In the meantime, Gaza is officially in famine and faces annihilation. And the West Bank faces more settlements. So instead of the British Government making a stand, it uses its laws and force on those who protest on home soil.

If our states would rather silence their own citizens than challenge the real destabilisers, what’s the point of them?

Here’s what I realised from my own helplessness: we all have our own brave that can contribute to the world.

It doesn’t have to be at the level of a Pussy Riot, a political prisoner, or a human rights lawyer. It’s about following your purpose, responding to that fire in your belly, showing up as the brilliant person you were born to be.

Because the world needs every single one of us to know our voice and use it for those who don’t have one.

We’ve entered an era of chaos and destruction. The status quo is crumbling because it’s no longer fit for purpose.

This creates space - dangerous space, yes - but also space for the builders.

Those of us who will be there for others, who know ourselves so deeply that nothing can paralyse us.

I can sense a collective rage growing everywhere.

And it’s manifesting in two directions: peaceful protest (the majority of arrests have been Quakers!) and destructive anger targeting asylum seekers. We’re all fighting for what our country means, and against injustice, but the rage is being channelled down very different routes.

This is why we need to know ourselves better right now than we ever have before.

When everything is in flux, when nothing is black and white, when the old rules no longer apply - that’s precisely when authentic self-knowledge becomes essential.

Not for navel-gazing, but for action.

Because how you show up when the world is breaking down depends entirely on who you are beneath all the roles and expectations.

This is why The Brave Collective exists.

Not for personal development in comfortable times, but as essential infrastructure for uncertain ones.

To help experienced leaders rediscover their authentic brilliance so they can act courageously from that foundation.

Because whilst our institutions fail us, we can rebuild from the ground up - one authentic, resourced, brilliant person at a time.

The question isn’t whether you can afford to do this work on yourself. It’s whether you can afford not to, when the world needs you to show up as exactly who you were born to be.

What does your brave look like right now?

Here’s to your brilliance,

Kirsty x

P.S. If this resonates and you’re ready to move beyond rage into purposeful action, let’s talk. The world needs your unique brilliance more than ever. We have spaces open for both Be and Build.