Embarrassment is a feeling that a person may get when they end up in an awkward or humiliating situation. It’s a feeling that no doubt all of us will go through in our lifetime and for that reason, there is nothing to be ashamed of.
In fact, feeling embarrassed is arguably an opportunity for you to grow. Why? Because feeling embarrassed is like a job experience. Without it, you do not learn from your mistakes.
At first glance, it may seem counterintuitive to suggest that embarrassment is good for confidence. After all, embarrassment is often an uncomfortable feeling that can make people feel insecure and self-conscious. However, upon closer inspection, being embarrassed is actually a major factor for determining one’s confidence.
Think about all of the influential and famous comedians in our world today, such as stand up comedians like Jimmy Carr, Jack Whitehall and even Eddie Murphy. The risk of something embarrassing happening on stage such as a joke getting no laughs would have been immensely high, especially given their large audiences.
Nonetheless, through hundreds of shows that they have performed, they have developed levels of confidence that thousands of us dream to possess.
It’s examples like this that suggest links between embarrassment and confidence and that choosing to face embarrassment is the perfect social therapy you need to personal growth!
Here are reasons why embarrassment is good for confidence:
While it can be hard to go through something embarrassing, choosing to avoid all of the embarrassing situations which come our way will simply prevent any opportunity for growth and learning.
For example, if you’re asking yourself ‘Why am I so embarrassed to sing’ when being around your friends or ‘Why can I not talk in front of large crowds’, the answer is simple – It’s because you’ve rarely if not ever put yourself in those kinds of situations.
Experience matters when it comes to building confidence and in order to gain confidence, you may have to go through embarrassing situations at times. In the case of singing, if you’ve never done it before, your mind will be thinking that if you sing in front of your friends for the first time, there is the possibility that they may laugh at you, hence reducing confidence in your friendship.
However, if you never do it, you will never know if that’s the case. By facing the situation head on as well as the reaction to you singing, you will experience that feeling of embarrassment. As a matter of fact, the experience may not be as bad as you think and hence your confidence in yourself singing will have increased.
Taking this approach to a plethora of situations is the reason why many people are very confident today, so don’t be afraid to face embarrassment head on!
Being embarrassed is a huge factor when it comes to over-thinking and it can lead us to shy away from many social situations. In fact you may wonder, ‘Is it common’ or ‘Is it normal to be embarrassed by your own thoughts’ and it absolutely is – Many people can cringe just thinking about themselves being in an embarrassing situation.
This is why it is essential to face your embarrassment head on. If I’m embarrassed about something, how do I get over it?
I need to face that embarrassment, because if I don’t I will shy away from that social situation. In other words, Facing something embarrassing can actually make you a more socially interactive person, because you begin to feel less overwhelmed by the idea of being judged by the people around you.
As evidence, in a survey of over 2,000 adults in the United States by the Harris Poll (2019), 45% of respondents reported feeling embarrassed or self-conscious in social situations, and 25% reported avoiding social situations altogether due to these feelings.
The more embarrassing situations you experience, the more resilient you are to people judging you, because you either get used to the embarrassment or realise that these situations you thought were embarrassing were actually not as bad as you thought they were!
Being embarrassed isn’t an easy feeling to go through and for that reason, many people fear the feeling of going through something embarrassing.
Nevertheless, like any other fear, for you to overcome it, you must go through it. By going through it, you develop confidence, because if you fear a situation, you have no confidence in yourself to go through a similar situation in the future.
Whether you’re so embarrassed about being in a play or wondering what to do when you get embarrassed, always turn to one thing in mind: Overcoming the fear of being embarrassed. The more situations you go through where the worry of embarrassment may be present, the less scary these situations become.
Like any experience or skill, overcoming embarrassment simply requires trial and error. Eventually, you get used to it or realise you may not be as awkward as you thought you were.
That is what makes you more fearless and develops YOUR self-esteem!
If we avoid situations that are embarrassing, we are restricting any opportunity to become more humble.
You might wonder, how does humility link to confidence?
When we are humble, we are more open to feedback and more willing to admit our mistakes. This can help us to learn and grow, and ultimately become more confident in ourselves and our abilities.
If we restrict ourselves from any possibilities for embarrassing situations to occur through avoiding these situations, we may maintain certain viewpoints and opinions that we may not be right to have.
For example, working in a fast food restaurant like McDonalds, may increase the risk of embarrassment if we were to accidentally spill food on a customer, but without this experience, we won’t learn from the mistake and realise the difficulty and hard work that can come when it comes to working life.
The key thing to take away is that embarrassment opens the opportunity to become wiser as we experience the real world and be able to relate to key issues and topics that we may not experience if we were to avoid being embarrassed. In doing so, we can hence develop more humility.
As a whole, we must realise that embarrassment is more of an opportunity than something to be ashamed of. It’s a great way to develop confidence in multiple ways, because it allows us to learn from our mistakes, develop resilience by stepping out of our comfort zone; overcome our fears and help us to develop our humility.
All of these factors contribute towards your confidence in some way, shape or form. Do not feel humiliated if you ever come across an embarrassing situation!
