#35 Days of Dares #27 Dare to Be Embarrassed
A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.
Nikos Kazantzakis
When the fear of being embarrassed holds you back from trying new things or from sharing your creative work, you need to face that fear and do it anyway.
As a writer I find that I’m constantly wondering how others will receive my work.
Will they like it?
Am I really good enough?
Who do I think I am to do this?
The older I get the less I care about feeling embarrassed and the more I care about doing my best and going for my goals. If that involves a little embarrassment, then so be it.
Worst case scenario?
I have to head back to the drawing board and start again.
Someone may scoff at my work and I may feel humiliated.
These things have happened and I have survived.
I’ve been embarrassed many times. There was the time I pen leaked ink into my mouth when I bit the end of it and my teeth, gums, lips and tongue were blue all day. I was teaching high school at the time and had several classes of teenagers rolling around laughing every time I spoke.
There was the time I’d tucked my skirt into my knickers after a visit to the rest room at a formal event and no one told me.
There was the time I said that losing my dog was like losing a member of the family in front of someone who had recently lost a young child. (I didn’t know until afterwards)
There’s also been the times when I go somewhere new and everyone else seems to know each other and I’m left standing. Do I try and break in and potentially embarrass myself or do I stand awkwardly by until someone speaks to me?
If I’d run away and hidden and never put myself in those situations again it would mean that I’d never be able to teach or speak in public again for fear something would happen.
I’d never go to formal occasions again in fear of those people remembering the knickers incident and laughing at me.
(I am more careful about the way I speak about certain issues.)
When it comes to embarrassment about my work, there have been many times I’ve blushed.
When I see simple typos in my blogs or books.
When I tell someone I’ve written a few books and they’ve written twenty and have had publishing deals for years.
When an editor points out a recurring, simple error in a manuscript.
There’s so much potential for embarrassment when you step out and do something creative—in fact, life is full of embarrassment potential.
The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to. As an artist, I feel that we must try many things – but above all we must dare to fail. You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all.
John Cassavetes
What about when you want to do something crazy like go in a triathlon and you don’t have clip in shoes on your bike and you use a camel back instead of a drink bottle and the professionals or more experienced look at you with disdain?
You also have thighs that juggle.
Does that stop you?
No, you do it anyway.
Often we feel if people know the real us, that they won’t like us, will reject us or make fun of us. Be real anyway. Having the confidence to be who you are and to do
the things you were born to do is an adventure in itself and one of the most rewarding.
There’s something liberating about not pretending. Dare to embarrass yourself. Risk.
Drew Barrymore
Dare to be embarrassed and live life to the full.
#365adventure is a book lover’s year of adventures. Adventures in travel, friendship, family, soul, heart and, of course, book stores!
