Putting Yourself Out There

Katagelophobia and atychiphobia.

Any guesses on what these two phobias are about?

Katagelophobia: fear of embarrassment
Atychiphobia: fear of failure

These two phobias are crippling to anyone’s success. After recently reading Sara Blakely’s article about leaning into these two specific fears, something clicked in my head that we have to embrace the fact that we all will look like fools many times in our lifetime. There’s no escaping it. So why not just embrace it?

The differentiator between someone who feels comfortable in their own skin and someone who is afraid they will look ‘uncool’ is night and day. If the worst that can happen is, ‘oh I look like a damn fool just now…wait, I survived’, then was that experience that bad? I don’t think so.

The person who can be comfortable being embarrassed is the one who will continue to take risks and push forward. If humans are too scared to be in the spotlight and express vulnerability, then they are the ones responsible for keeping themselves from greatness.

For instance, this morning my dog started howling in the middle of the street on our daily walk because he heard sirens. I usually howl with him at home when he hears sirens because 1) it’s fun to bond with the dog and 2) annoys the heck out of my fiancé. More reason #1 than reason #2.

I didn’t know what to do since we were in public, but I howled along with him for a little (until he started doing the high-pitch yelping). Then I said, “Stop it Ricky, you’re embarrassing me”. This made me think back on Blakely’s story about embracing the embarrassment and just to live with it.

Be more like Ricky. Be fearless and don’t care about what others think.