Join us as we conclude a three part series on vulnerability from audience feedback.
Hat tip to Steph McCoy for the great topic suggestion!
How To Embrace Vulnerability As Your Greatest Strength
- “Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage,” affirms research professor and author Brené Brown in Rising Strong.
- Your association with vulnerability requires a shift in awareness in order to strengthen your emotional well-being.
- You must accept your vulnerability if you wish to live a wholesome life. Even the smallest act of letting down your guard is a commitment to your personal growth.
- “When we experience a great loss or hurt that feels like ‘broken heartedness’, we now realize that our heart is not broken. It’s actually the heart’s protective shell of defences breaking open to allow us to feel all emotions fully,” writes author Loch Kelly in Shift into Freedom: The Science and Practice of Open-Hearted Awareness.
- Vulnerability is an act of courage because you merge with your authentic self, instead of hiding behind a facade to appease others.
- It is within the unknown where your greatest potential lies. Human nature is imperfect, yet the paradox is that we are whole within that sphere of imperfection.
- To embrace vulnerability as your greatest strength, you will need to become aware of your pain points. Retaliation leads to suffering, since you are likely to defend your pain like a wounded animal.
- Every person has pain thresholds. If left unchecked, they become inflamed and dominate your emotional landscape, not to mention your physical health.
- Suffering ensues when you focus on your sorrow, instead of appreciating the beauty and richness of your complete self.
- [Similarly,] …be wary of the ego and its aversion to being vulnerable. The ego likes to protect its image and vulnerability is a crack in its armour.
How Vulnerability Can Be a Leadership Superpower
- Good leaders bring mentally healthy values to their teams and organizations. And that means showing weakness, at times, and facing the resulting risk of being perceived as a weak leader. But accessing that vulnerability is harder for some leaders than others.
- Jason Rosario, founder of The Lives of Men, discusses how mental health, vulnerability, and masculinity intersect at work.
- The Anxious Achiever / Season 2, Episode 5
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