How to Own Vulnerability When You're Highly Successful
Sometimes, our ego gets in the way of asking for help when we need it. We may prevent ourselves from achieving new heights because we think we are protecting ourselves. But, by practicing vulnerability, you can accomplish so much more.
As a highly successful individual, you may not believe you can have the luxury of being vulnerable. Asking for help, delegating tasks, and seeming weak in any capacity may feel like a failure to you. However, practicing vulnerability is one of the bravest things you can do. Interested in learning more about the relationship between vulnerability and success? Keep reading.
Taking time to define vulnerability
We have all heard the term vulnerability before. But do you truly know what it means? It is not as frightening as you may have once believed. Essentially, vulnerability is allowing someone into your life and into your emotional walls.
Fear of vulnerability is rooted in insecurity, self-doubt, and shame. As a successful person, you may not want to confront these ideas about yourself. Of course, each individual suffers from some sort of imperfection. This does not discount any of your successes. Recognizing what you struggle with only affirms your self-awareness and comfort in your own skin. These two traits make practicing vulnerability much easier.
The link between success and vulnerability
In society, vulnerability is frequently misinterpreted as weakness. A highly successful individual would never want to appear weak. If you occupy any position of power over someone else, it is natural you would not want to exploit your weaknesses. Vulnerability, however, should never be considered a weakness, as it is a great show of strength.
A large part of vulnerability is acknowledging and recognizing your emotions and thoughts. Sometimes, you may not want to own your feelings due to embarrassment. However, in putting a name to your emotions and claiming them, you put yourself back into a position of power over your feelings, rather than the other way around.
Benefits of practicing vulnerability
There are plenty of benefits to practicing vulnerability with very few downsides. Once you can overcome your fear of voicing your thoughts and feelings, you can begin to reap these benefits. Some of the ways you can profit from vulnerability include:
Forging deeper and more meaningful relationships
Tapping into your creativity on a deeper level
Expanding your worldview
Understanding and empathizing on a new level
Becoming comfortable with yourself
To become comfortable with your own vulnerability, you must first be comfortable with yourself. By embracing every aspect of yourself, you embrace every thought, feeling, and emotion you experience. Once you are able to accept yourself, you can accept other people getting to know you.
This also sparks a self-confidence that would otherwise be difficult to achieve. This allows you to become unshakeable in your sense of self so that no one’s opinion of your vulnerability will truly matter.
Working toward being more vulnerable
Now that you understand the benefits of vulnerability and how you can begin to achieve it, let’s examine what your next steps are. Unfortunately, acceptance of your own vulnerability is not as easy as a snap of the fingers. It will take time, hard work, and perhaps even some discomfort at first.
However, vulnerability is a muscle you will soon learn to flex. Along with your successes, vulnerability is something you can work toward. After you take control of your vulnerability, you will become virtually unstoppable.
By being truly vulnerable with someone else, you will learn more about yourself. If you still find yourself struggling with vulnerability, I encourage you to seek professional help. Together, you and I can work together to break down your walls and reach new heights of success. Let’s connect soon so you can learn more about work stress therapy and how it can benefit you.
