Daring Greatly: Initial Thoughts

If you’ve never heard of Brené Brown, stop reading this and go watch her TED Talk. If you’d rather keep reading, well then thank you and here’s a summary: Brown’s work centers around two things, shame, and vulnerability. Daring Greatly, at least in my limited exposure to it (I’m still reading), focuses mostly on Brown’s work with vulnerability.

This commitment to vulnerability is what made me want to read the book in the first place. See, I love vulnerability. I want to be vulnerable, I want people to be vulnerable to me. I agree with Brown that vulnerability is the key to succeeding in life and mental health.

It’s interesting to be reading this book 12 years into therapy because I’m at a place in my journey where I’ve reached the same conclusions as Brené Brown. Being vulnerable is a strength, not a weakness. Don’t get me wrong, it took a lot of fucking work to get to the place where I can say that and believe it. However, I am there. Reading Daring Greatly (again, so far) as been a lot of me cheerleading and a lot of Brown preaching to the converted.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t still things for me to learn or that I’m not enjoying the book. The experience of reading it is just a little different than I thought it was going to be. Honestly my greatest takeaway so far has been the reminder that all the work I’ve been putting into therapy and the adjustments I’m making in my life are actually working.

You have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations sometimes in order to achieve new things. That’s being vulnerable. Going outside of your comfort zone is being vulnerable. Sharing yourself with someone else is vulnerable. But that’s how you get the good things in life.

Vulnerability is tough and it’s painful and it’s so so worth it.