In today’s world it almost seems impossible to be completely genuine and real. We live in a society where people receive praise for “living their best life” on Instagram and other various platforms. An indirect competition to look the best has been created and has formed our society to “fake it till we make it”. A false sense of perfection has formed over the years and I, myself, am extremely guilty of seeing a post on Instagram and thinking “gosh I wish I could live like that”. The real and genuine feelings of our society have been swept under the rug for some time, creating an elephant in the room for most. The indirect competition to this sense of perfection has made it nearly impossible to admit to feeling anything but great. I’ve experienced a sense of embarrassment admitting to feeling hurt or pain, even to my own family. There is a pandemic of comparison and sadness associated with our society. Vulnerability is a trait that can be used to combat these thoughts and feelings of a factitious fantasy world. As we age and learn more about ourselves and one another, the real importance of human connection grows more important.
It seems as if we’ve gotten away from building genuine relationships because of this false sense of perfection. It has become un-cool to speak about real things. Conversation is backed by what we perceive as cool, not what we truly believe and feel. I write this from a perspective of a 21 year old college athlete. This is the world that I know and see as I mature as a man. I’ve noticed that I cannot speak to my peers on a deeper level because most are scared to be vulnerable. They are scared to talk about the real feelings they have because they believe that others will not feel the same. But the truth is, we’re all a lot more similar than we may think. The pain and hurt that you may be feeling can be a breath of fresh air for someone else learning that they are not alone. I believe that being able to be vulnerable is a super power. I believe that vulnerability is a key ingredient to relationship building and leadership. In my opinion, there can be only good that comes from speaking your truth.
Nowadays, this concept poses a great challenge and threat to most. This is because it’s become “cool” for people to negatively speak on someone else’s truth. We see it everyday on Twitter, someone will post an accomplishment or something positive and there will always be someone in the comments with a negative response. That negative comment was made just because someone else’s truth didn’t line up with theirs. In today’s society, it seems as if everyone feels like their truth is the only acceptable one, causing others to have a hard time to be vulnerable and speak their truth. A way to combat this problem is to challenge yourself to speak only positively about everyone you come across. A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. Seek genuine connections and relationships and be mindful of the power that your truth may speak.
