It can be frightening to publish our writing. Putting something out into the world can make us feel exposed. And we worry about what the critics are going to say.
Do you get a chill when you hit publish or send an email to your list?
Watch this talk from Brené Brown, expert on courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy, to understand why it’s not about winning, it’s not about losing, but it’s about showing up and being seen. It’s about stepping into the arena.
We can’t ensure that the critics won’t be in the arena when we step out into the world*.
But we be sure there’ll be shame (I feel humiliated), scarcity (it’s not original), and comparison (she did it better).
We don’t need to stop caring what people think. But we do need to show up.
And we need to remember that the critics aren’t the ones who count.
Are you ready to step into the arena?
*Here’s the Theodore Roosevelt quote Brené references:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
― Theodore Roosevelt
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