Vulnerability and Relationships

"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 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 enthusiams, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly..." Theodore Roosevelt

Relationships, Transparency & Rejection

I have heard this quote several times, but when I read it in the beginning pages of Brene Brown's book Daring Greatly, I truly appreciated it's context as it relates to relationships. Any time we enter into a relationship we risk rejection. When we share ourselves at any level with someone else, we risk rejection. And we all fear rejection, so we try to play it safe. We keep people at a distance or we have more virtual interactions than real ones.  

I am not endorsing the notion of being transparent with everyone, but I am suggesting we select individuals we can be authentic with; people we can share and they can share with us and we can experience acceptance. We can start by sharing small stories with someone and having them gain our trust and we learn if we can trust them.