Courage, Vulnerability, and Self Worth (video)

Does being more vulnerable give you a sense of worthiness? I don’t know many men who would willingly discuss this, much less agree with it, and I’m no exception. But today I may have changed my mind about that.

I’ve been going through some personal challenges lately – above and beyond the usual life lessons. Over the last couple of weeks, I feel as if I’ve encountered the full range of human emotions, from loving kindness to rage, from fear to triumph, from loss to gratitude. I’ve had to do some serious rethinking of a bunch of my assumptions about life and work and money and family, and I’m still trying to get clear on what the next steps are for me – as a man, as a father, and as a citizen of Planet Earth.

So today I came across this talk by Dr. Brené Brown at TEDX Houston, in which she makes some very interesting observations about courage, vulnerability, and self worth, and it’s really got me thinking:

My first response to it is, that’s too simple, too vague, too touchy-feely.

But after I sat with it for a while, I could see the truth behind it, and to be quite honest, it’s something I’ve always known about myself – that I’m afraid of being vulnerable, afraid of appearing to be incompetent, afraid to be seen as flawed or imperfect, and afraid of feeling anything too deeply.

I don’t know what the practical steps are to changing that (and Dr. Brown doesn’t really speak to it, unless her example of her own therapy is the answer), but I’ll be taking a good hard look at that part of myself this coming year.

What are your thoughts about the issues she brought up?