Always own your stupid

Stupidity.

Our lives, in many ways, are driven around reducing it. Eliminating it, if we can. We go to school to become educated, enlightened, informed. But really, we go to be proven 'smart'.

Stupid is an insult. It's the antitheses of what we want to be. It’s what we work hard to prove we are NOT.

So, why, you may ask, why oh WHY would I tell you to own your stupid? What possible value does that offer?

Simple.

You are stupid.

Calm your collective panties. It's not just you. It's not really even an insult. But it's still true. You are stupid.

Not about everything. Maybe not even about a lot of things. But there is something, at least one thing, which you are utterly and completely hopelessly stupid about.

Everyone is. And right now you, all of you, in your core of cores, are squirming, because you know it is true.

But some of you, some few wise souls, are nodding. You are nodding and thinking 'yep, I've got some stupid.' You, fine ladies and gentlemen, I applaud. Because you are one very important step along your journey to utter awesomeness. The awesomeness only obtained by owning your stupid.

The counter-intuitive math of why Owning + Stupid = Awesome

Let me tell you the story of my favourite stupid-owning celebrity: Adore Delano.

Not familiar with Adore? Shame on you! You need a side-trip in your journey to awesomeness: go watch the full sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. Seriously. Because if you want to learn the secret formula of how owning your stupid makes you awesome, that drag queen will be your greatest teacher.

Adore is wonderful. She's an absolute delight. She's witty, funny, cute, insanely talented and smart enough to really own her stupid.

In the beginning, Adore is the unpolished underdog. She can’t sew. The outfits she does have are frequently the wrong shape/length/colour/etc. She has what she refers to as ‘hog-body’. Adore’s ‘stupid’ is on display again and again in front of the cameras, the judges and the other contestants. And every time it is, she makes you love her for it. How?

Adore OWNS it.

That which we own, we can change

'So what?' I hear you say. 'I don’t get how this applies to me. I'm not a drag queen.'

Maybe not, but I’m going to assume you, like Adore, have a job.

I'm also going to assume that you, like Adore, are good at your job. Maybe you are excellent at your job. Maybe you are the single-best-in-the-entire-world at your job.

Is that it? Is there nothing you could be better at? At all? Really?

I didn’t think so.

What is it you suck at? What is it you don't know/can't do/do poorly? List it. Write it out. Sure, it will suck to do. It will be painful to admit, maybe a little embarrassing to see in the black-and-white of the real world. Take a deep breath and press on. Adore had her stupid on display on a TV show with thousands of viewers. You have the luxury of owning your stupid totally in private.

At first.

Because owning your stupid isn't about being alone in the dark and keeping secrets. It's about stepping into the light and showing off your stupid with the willingness to say 'yep, I'm totally stupid on this. Hey world, want to help?'

That seems scary. Actually, it seems, well stupid. Admit to the world the stupid you have been so desperately trying to hide? Won’t that blow up in your face?

Well, there is a chance it might.

But there’s a much better chance that owning up will endear you to those who can help.

Until you own your stupid you cannot do anything about it. You can't improve it. You can’t remove it. You can't grow.

Oh, and, P.S.

Even if you don't own your stupid, everyone else still knows about it.

So really, what’s stopping you?