Nerd alert: there are few things I love to do more than sitting at home watching TED talks from some of the most influential people in the world. However, one talk in particular led me on a road to self-discovery by bringing my attention to a collective problem we face as a society. Brené Brown’s TED talk, “The Power of Vulnerability” is about listening to shame and embracing failure as an inevitable part of life- a crucial one, which is ultimately the key to success.
When we think of what’s keeping us from bringing our wildest hopes and dreams to fruition, the answer is almost always that we are self-sabotaging. We are afraid of failure, and in order to avoid it at all costs, we refrain from attempts at being extraordinary.
However, Brown believes that the opposite mindset is necessary if we truly want to achieve our goals; that “vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.”
Failure is the only way to really become successful, and as any self-made sensation will tell you, they’ve failed numerous times trying to make their mark on the world.
Brown also touches on the difference between male shame and female shame, stating that, “shame, for women, is this web of unobtainable, conflicting, competing expectations about who we’re supposed to be. And it’s a straightjacket.”
She makes some amazing points, and one of the main takeaways is that our collective struggle, the fact that we all fail and are all afraid to be seen as failures, is actually a powerful tool that brings us together. “The two most powerful words when we’re in struggle: me too.”
In order to truly connect with each other, to build relationships and trust, vulnerability is the way we’re going to do it. “I know it’s seductive to stand outside the arena, because I think I did it my whole life, and think to myself, I’m going to go in there and kick some ass when I’m bulletproof and when I’m perfect. And that is seductive. But the truth is that never happens. And even if you got as perfect as you could and as bulletproof as you could possibly muster when you got in there, that’s not what we want to see. We want you to go in. We want to be with you and across from you. And we just want, for ourselves and the people we care about and the people we work with, to dare greatly.”
Check out this inspiring TED talk here.
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