This week we watched a couple of Ted talks by Brene Brown. She focused on the importance of vulnerability for love, compassion, and growth. I first watched this Ted talk my sophomore year in my Generalist Practice class. Back then, I was going through relationship and trust issues between my family, and friends. Watching this Ted talk opened my eyes to a new perspective. A perspective in where mistakes and embarrassment was acceptable. Vulnerability to me has always meant having the potential to be embarrassed. This related to my life at the time, and I allowed myself to see the world as a learning experience. If I didn’t try, I would never know. This made me realize that I was closed off to a lot of people, especially the ones I loved. I had trust issues, and always made decisions based on what the other person could be thinking.
I always believe everything happens for a reason. After this Ted talk, I consciously allowed myself to be vulnerable. This meant trusting someone when I wasn’t sure I could; telling friends about personal problems; asking for help. I noticed that I made friends, opportunities opened up, and I was happy. My relationships truly seemed to bloom, but it’s always good to keep the notion of vulnerability as a reminder. This past summer I went to Field Training (pretty much boot camp). The one quote I held dearly to me was: “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new”-Albert Einstein. This meant that when we were getting yelled at and put on the spot for knowledge, I would voluntarily raise my hand and attempt to answer it. Truthfully, 98% of the time I did this, I was wrong. I doubted the whole conception of vulnerability because my experience in making mistakes and feeling embarrassed hadn’t payed off. After coming back, I was talking to one of my supervisors that had been there, and I told her how I had tried to volunteer and make mistakes for the purpose of learning, but that I just felt embarrassed throughout and it never really payed off. She said, “But that was the reason they all liked you.” I learned that many times, your efforts might go unnoticed to yourself, but they never go unnoticed by the rest. This meant a lot to me and after watching this talk again this week, it has allowed me to notice the dynamics of teamwork, communication, and working together. In a macro level perspective, individuals might be hard on themselves for making a mistake--that’s human nature. But to others, this mistake is a token of admiration, and it inspires others to have the courage to make mistakes as well.
Observation: I was given orders to do a fundraiser and I noticed he wasn’t prepared. He didn’t know the proposed idea and he gave me wrong information.
Thank you for sharing your story of trying to be vulnerable in a place where weakness is frowned upon. I think looking at vulnerability in the way Brene framed it changes the dynamic and takes it from a place of failure and weakness to a place of growth. Your dedication to that process through continued efforts spoke through to your superiors and they saw you taking chances as a positive thing - even if you weren't right 100% of the time. I think your personal experiences highlights this.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your comment about asking for help. I think especially as a social worker major, I feel that helping others means never needing help myself. I too enjoyed the talk for that reason. I also really like your anecdote about trying to answer the questions and getting them wrong every time. Sometimes won't try to answer things when I think I know the answer for fear of being wrong. It feels good to know that I'm not the only one :-)
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