Brené Brown and the way to be enough.
When you find out who you are, you find the courage to be YOU.
Almost everyone I know tries to be perfect. The perfect salesman. The perfect web developer. The perfect manager. No-one wants the world to see that they have any flaws. And this concealment causes us tremendous stress.
Brené Brown is the TED-talking woman who exposes this strong desire of ours to conceal our vulnerability. In her Houston talk she describes how we cut ourselves off from others when we refuse to admit who we are. “In order for connection to happen we have to allow ourselves to be seen, really seen,” she says, after 6 years of research into the phenomenon of vulnerability.
Fine words.
But how do you find out who you are?
The process starts with knowing no one is the full package. Brené calls it ‘the courage to be imperfect’. It’s when you accept that you are made to work with others, to be a part of the team. You are not the team.
Next, find out what you are and where you fit. Many of us got pulled into the wrong job. We’re miserable because we must keep covering up that error. In case they find out.
If you stop the charade and acknowledge you are enough, you emerge as the person you always wanted to be. A person who is authentically connected. You let go of who you thought you should be in order to be who you are.
“And that,” as Brené puts it, “is when you let yourself be seen. Deeply seen.”
When you know what you are AND what you are not, you can genuinely say “I am enough”.
