Be Seen Trying

There has been a great deal of discussion over the last few years about the fear of being seen. So many self-help courses have been designed to help people get over their concerns about being in the public eye.

But what I’ve found working with friends isn’t that they’re afraid of success or afraid of failure. They’re afraid of being seen trying*.

Neither failure nor success bothers them. Success obviously encourages one to continue on, and failure comes to an obvious end. We have all kinds of platitudes to explain our failures away. These aren’t issues. It’s the fear of being seen learning something when your public persona suggests you’re already a master.

That’s what frightens most leaders. It’s the space in between that terrifies people and gets them to lying and pretending all kinds of terrible things.

So here you go: It’s okay to not know. No matter where you are on the leadership ladder, it’s okay to say, “Wait a minute. Let me go and ask someone.” Or, “I’m still trying to figure this out”. Or “I don’t know yet.”

All of these work. None of them makes you any less of a leader. And if someone questions your ability to lead simply because you don’t know something, know they’ve been committed to questioning you since the beginning. There’s nothing lost and nothing to lose.

You already know what to do with your fear of failure. You know what to do with your fear of success. This year invites you to question your fear of being seen trying.

Video by A Q from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/get-up-if-you-fail-20762192/