Transparency, vulnerability, and rejection
My fear mobilizes itself on those three words.
Yesterday on my birthday, I promised that I would write down what I feared. This morning, I wrote a list of fears down in a free writing session.
I led the session thinking: “What am I afraid of.”
Almost like a movie, the first idea came out like a piston:
“relationships.” “Truth” and “exposure” we’re not far behind.
As I kept writing (this list ended up being around forty things), three themes continued to pop up.
- Transparency – I feel like people seeing my process will criticize it, and as a result, discard my work (read: ME).
- Vulnerability – I feel like extending my hand will lead to it being chopped off.
- Rejection – I feel like letting people know how much I care will come off, almost like a stalker.
Every single idea, from “failure” to “my art being ‘wiped away'” all the way to “not getting the benefit of the doubt” all circled those three ideas.
How many of my ideas find themselves prematurely squelched due to this fear?
How about you?
From the desk of Adam Thomas 