Pick-Up 064: Vulnerability
Peace be upon you, dear friends,
I completely misused the term “vulnerability” in the last issue.
Aside from the literal meaning of the word that we find in the dictionary, it was Brené Brown who first introduced me to vulnerability as this “thing” in today’s culture. She is famous for her work on leadership, shame, vulnerability, and courage. I must have discovered her through some video on Youtube at one point, years ago. I also remember watching parts of her show The Call to Courage on Netflix after that and noticed she’s quite the storyteller, but I’ve only recently picked up her book Dare to Lead.
She defines vulnerability as the emotion we experience during times of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. The examples people gave during the years of research helped better illustrate the idea for me: “…the first date after my divorce, talking about race with my team, trying to get pregnant after my second miscarriage, starting my own business, watching my child leave for college, apologizing to a colleague about how I spoke to him in a meeting, sending my son to orchestra practice knowing how badly he wants to make first chair and knowing there’s a really good chance he will not make the orchestra at all, waiting for the doctor to call back, giving feedback, getting feedback, getting fired, firing someone.”
Now that I’m writing this, I realized that I probably came across this term at the time I wanted to start YouTube. I even remember telling people I’ve talked to about that idea how putting myself out there is making me vulnerable, and how it was not something I was ready to feel. That time I used it right! ;)
I loved how I was reminded of this important human truth; “Courage and fear are not mutually exclusive. Most of us feel brave and afraid at the exact same time. We feel vulnerable. Sometimes all day long.” I also liked the clarification she made on differentiating vulnerability from disclosure because I’m continuously struggling with what would be oversharing on my side. She made it very clear that she wasn’t a proponent of vulnerability for vulnerability’s sake or of leaders disclosing personal experiences and sharing emotions without setting boundaries…Yes! Leaders, like you and me. To her, a leader is someone who takes the responsibility to find potential in people and processes and dares to develop that potential. And I believe that it’s something everyone is dealing with in a way every single day.
I do like what I’m reading in the book so far. I’m sharing the quotes that resonate with me in the form of IG stories these days. It’s always fun to read people’s responses and see that they resonate with them as well. I think they’ll be other issues in the future, God willing, where I’ll share more of what I learn on this topic.
Stay tuned.
▶️ The Sphere of YouTube
Here is the Tedtalk on the power of vulnerability that got Brené famous.
💭 This Week’s Quote
“When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability”
― Madeleine L’Engle.
Thanks for Reading!
Thoughts and feedback on the newsletter or on anything covered within are always welcome, just hit reply. Hope you enjoyed this. As always, I appreciate you.
Stay curious and have a great week. 🤟
Meriem.