Your Insecurities Are Universal
After my sixth “hard conversation” the other day, I had a radical thought…
It came after I was sitting down with one of my most favourite humans in the whole world, a young man named Cam. I had the unpleasant responsibility to let him know that I would be unable to fulfill my part of the agreement we set out… I would be moving on from the role as his Personal Trainer at the end of the month… I had been dreading this conversation all week.
And something inside me also knew it was going to be okay… Cam’s cool. 😎
Here I was, expecting to crush a young man and dear friend’s feelings, lose their trust and have them hate me forever, when really, I was acting in integrity to everything I taught him for the past 6 months. Funny how I was so quick to “worst-case” things in my head.
Of course he handled it like a champ and expressed how he’ll miss our training… and went on to tell me how happy he was for me to be able to do what I really wanted to do, and we bumped fists and got into the session like usual.
I was so relieved. Clearly, I still hate feeling like I let someone down… a little story of mine that I get to explore more of…
Two things came to mind on the drive home that night…
1. Genuine people genuinely want the best for you… and
2. Why does everybody think their insecurity is unique?
Artists think they’re broken and fragile.
Athletes think they’re under pressure.
Founders think they’re alone at the top.
Different stages. Same mindset.
Same internal friction:
Fear of exposure…
Fear of not being enough…
Fear of being seen without armour…
The costume changes.
A microphone.
A jersey.
A boardroom table.
Remove the costume and you’ll find the same thing:
A human operating under immense load.
This is where most leadership conversations miss the mark.
They try to build confidence.
Confidence is volatile.
Capacity is structural.
Creativity training matters because it teaches you to operate under constraint.
To collaborate under tension.
To make decisions without certainty.
To express clearly when pressure rises.
That builds something deeper than confidence.
It builds capacity.
And capacity scales.
The next time you walk into a situation where you’re uncertain about the outcome, even worried it’ll go south… I implore you to embrace that feeling.
The world is going to be much more harsh to you if you continually avoid the things that make you most vulnerable and insecure.
Might as well get some reps in. Do the hard thing. And stop waiting for someone else’s permission. More on that later…
Thanks Cam. You’re wise beyond your years.
