Have you heard of a “vulnerability hangover”? I first heard the phrase from Brené Brown (whose books, by the way, are AWESOME & don’t even get me started on her Ted talk. Love.). Then this week I got a newsletter from Jennifer Lee (of The Right Brain Business Plan) in which she fessed up to having one recently.
What is a vulnerability hangover? A vulnerability hangover is that “what was I thinking” kind of feeling that happens after you put yourself out there in a real (genuine) way… aka when you expose yourself.
Like when you find the courage to push past your gremlins and do that thing that scares-but-excites you, you’re left with your guard down and your gremlins come back with a vengeance to point out all the little things that could’ve been better, that you did completely wrong, and that you shouldn’t have said in the first place.
Yeah, that.
Today I realized that’s what I’ve been feeling since I posted my video last week. And that’s why I’ve had such a hard time writing since that post.
But you know what? I’m still here. I had some nice comments about my video. And my mission is still the same as it was before I posted that video: to create space for people (you & me) to live our possibilities in life (by making gremlins back off & other more fun stuff).
And to do that, I’m going to have to do more things that scare me which often includes staying the course.
Ordinary courage is about putting our vulnerability on the line. In today’s world, that’s pretty extraordinary. ~ Brené Brown in The Gifts of Imperfection
One thing I noticed during that vulnerability hangover is that I kept looking for an “easy” topic to write about. As in something that’s less real for me at the moment… something I can talk about but not really connect to directly. (does that make sense?)
In other words, something that doesn’t require me to be vulnerable.
But you know what? To live fully, to love completely, to really connect to people, to make dreams come true… it all requires being vulnerable in some way. Being vulnerable takes courage.
Courage is like a multivitamin. You need a dose everyday. ← Tweet this, y’all!
Turns out my remedy for a vulnerability hangover is a little bit of the hair of the dog… so here I am putting myself out there again.