Be Vulnerable
Brené Brown studied shame for six years. She wanted to study connection, but she ended up listening to people’s stories about disconnection instead.
Why did people feel disconnected?
Shame.
All people, she found, struggle with a sense of worthiness. Am I worthy of connection? Is there something about me that, if other people know or see, will make me unworthy of connection?
She discovered in her research something very important to the lives of all people (and artists in particularly).
Have the courage to be vulnerable.
Have the courage to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart. Have the courage to be imperfect.
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.”
― Brené Brown
Authenticity is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, but it is essential for vulnerability. Essentially, we need to shed the person we think we should be and have the courage to be vulnerable as the person we really are.
This is why courage is the birthplace of creativity.
To be inauthentic is to copy. To be authentic and vulnerable is to create the art that matters most to us no matter how different, unique, weird, or absurd it may be.
To be vulnerable is to create something that might get rejected.
. . . and that has nothing to do with who we are. Our art has nothing to do with our sense of worthiness.
All this is well and good, but what happens when you actually apply it?
Brown went to a therapist. She thought she went for some strategies. She wasn’t willing to be vulnerable.
“No family stuff or childhood shit,” she told the therapist.
She realized that she wasn’t living what she had discovered in her research.
She realized that she, too, had numbed vulnerability. She was trying to make everything certain and planned out and perfect.
She didn’t give her TED talking hoping it would change her career and her life. She was pretty embarrassed by the whole thing. She was supposed to be an objective scientific researcher, not popular writer of self-help books.
Yet, today she is a multiple New York Times bestselling author — all because she was willing to be vulnerable and say “yes” to the creative inspiration that made her who she is.
Inspired by Brene Brown’s TED Talk on The Power of Vulnerability.
