Vulnerability...if it was only so easy

Brene Brown's TEDtalk video The Power of Vulnerability has 54 million views, the Youtube version has 16 million views, and her book is a bestseller. There must be something about vulnerability that piques our interest, to say the least.

We love seeing it in others, and yet, see it as weakness in ourselves. As Brown says, "Vulnerability is courage in you and inadequacy in me." Brown sought to figure out: "Why is vulnerability so much more admirable when someone else is doing it?"

It turns out, when imagining a vulnerable situation with someone else as the protagonist, people thought about the situation more abstractly. Psychologists would describe this as being more mentally distanced from the imagined scenario. And when we have more mental distance, we tend to focus on the positive and be more open to risk.

The research suggests we may be overestimating risks and underestimating the benefits of being vulnerable in our own lives...next time we think about that vulnerable situation for ourselves, can we try (as hard as it may be) to focus on some of the positives outcomes? And realize that the risk just not be as treacherous as we might imagine.