Does the fear of embarrassment stop you from writing online?

Do you know what stops you from writing online? For me, sometimes it's the squirmy fear of embarrassing myself publicly.

What if I write something and no one reads it? What if I tell everyone I'm doing this thing, and then it flops? What if no one clicks like? What if no one follows me? Everyone would see my profile and my posts AND see that no one likes them!!! So embarrassing.

I really hate the feeling of embarrassment. My gut gets all squirmy. My shoulders clench. I cringe. It's the worst.

But here's something I hate more...the stifling, sad, dark feeling of shutting down my own voice. When I have an idea I genuinely want to pursue, but get scared of embarrassment so do nothing, I feel disappointed and deflated.

When I first started writing I was so sick of this feeling that I was finally willing to risk embarrassment so I could hit publish on my blog.

Since then some things I've written have gone well. People saw my posts and liked them. People responded letting me know how my words helped. People signed up for my programs! (See Courageous Bloggers Society🎉)

But, I've also marketed programs that never sold. I've written deeply meaningful blog posts no one has read. I've announced things I haven't followed through on. (See my recent tries at starting a podcast for writers.🤷‍♀️)

Every time something doesn't go how I want I feel that squirmy embarrassed feeling. I don't like it, but what I've found is embarrassment is so much better than the feeling of stifling my desire to write.

Embarrassment is survivable. It takes a little bit of time to recover from, but I'm always intact in the end.

Stifling my own voice, however, was a constant sad feeling that never left me alone.

I've also found I am not always embarrassed. More often I get to experience connection with my audience. I get to feel the joy of helping others. I get to feel the freedom of doing something I really want to do.

But I would never get to feel these great things without taking the risk of potentially feeling embarrassed.

If your fear of embarrassment stops you from writing online, I can't guarantee you'll never feel embarrassed, but what I do know is feeling squirmy from embarrassment now and then is so worth the freedom of getting to put your voice out into the world.

xo,

Emma

P.S. I would love for you to join me and an amazing group of writers in The Courageous Bloggers Society, where we meet twice a month for live Writing & Coaching Workshops to help you build the confidence to write online and share your voice with the world!