One of the biggest obstacles to our progress in creating the life and impact that we want is the fear of embarrassing ourselves.

Let’s take a simple example so you can see what I mean …

Let’s say I want to create a business to help others. It would be really meaningful to me.

But to do that, I’d have to tell others about the business (potential customers, team members, investors, etc.). I’m worried that I’ll tell people about it but they’ll think its stupid, pretentious, etc etc — in other words, I’m worried I’ll embarrass myself.

So to protect myself from embarrassment, I spend 2 years either avoiding working on the business, or trying to learn everything I can so that I’ll know exactly what I’m doing, or trying to perfect my website and messaging.

In the end, the business never gets off the ground … &&all because I couldn’t get past my protection mechanism that’s designed to stop me from being embarrassed**.

This applies to anything: if you want to learn a language, get good at chess, learn rock climbing, put your art into the world … you’ll be held back by your fear of embarrassing yourself.

So how do we overcome it?

1, We intentionally put ourselves in a structure or support group designed to have us take the actions despite the fear of embarrassing ourselves. 2. We commit to taking those actions. 3. We let the fear come up, and we get support to take the actions anyway. Sometimes we avoid taking the actions … and then we feel embarrassed about that.

Either way, we’ll embarrass ourselves. And that’s where transformation happens.

We’ll overcome the fear of embarrassment by allowing ourselves to be exposed to embarrassment.

Embarrassment isn’t something we need to avoid. It can be uncomfortable, but it’s not unsafe. It’s not even that painful.

Instead, it’s a feeling of warmth in our body, an experience of life that’s a part of any kind of growth.

Embarrassment is a sign that we are stepping out of our comfort zone and learning and growing.

It’s a sign that we’re stepping beyond our old view of ourselves, leaving behind that self-view for something more expansive.