Becoming less judgmental by putting yourself out there without wanting to throw up

I feel like throwing up in my throat.

I just posted to LinkedIn with a photo of me. Photos are supposed to help get more reach. I’ve been posting without photos because I kind of want the visibility but don’t. (I’m crossing my fingers the photo post won’t get more reach so I won’t ever have to again.)

So in this moment, I want to talk about visibility.

As a budding business owner, I need to put myself out there to create awareness. And every time I do, I wonder…What if what I wrote was stupid? What if it’s not interesting enough? What will people think of me?

This shit is hard.

You know you need to create awareness and yet you want to hide.

You want to hide because that feels safe (even for extroverts). It feels vulnerable to put your words out into the world. With writing in particular, you hope your words land the way you intended. Even if you’re writing about something not that personal.

You’re a whole human

There’s so much that doesn’t come through in one post or in one photo. You are a whole person, you contain multitudes. And you simply can’t show all of who you are.

That’s the hardest part.

It’s easy to judge someone from one piece of content — we extrapolate all the time. This one thing means all the things about you. And that’s in the back of your mind when you’re sharing a little bit at a time.

Here’s what helps: Support others

If you focus entirely on what you’re doing, you’re more likely to focus on all the ways you suck.

But when you go out and help others doing the same thing, it’s not all about you anymore. You recognize that others are doing the thing like you. You know how that feels and it’s great to be there for them. To say — I see you.

While I struggle with visibility, it makes me less judgmental and more aware to look at one thing as one thing. Not the whole human.

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