The importance of putting yourself out there

During the last few years, one thing in particular that has helped me with navigating situations is putting myself out there. I find that by putting myself out there, I have got opportunities that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise and have achieved things that I wouldn’t have achieved otherwise. In this blog post, I will talk more about why you should put yourself there and ways in which you can do so.

There are lots of ways you can put yourself out there. One way could be by proactively putting your hand up to do things and help others, whether that is in the workplace, the family or somewhere else. I find that being proactive is an important skill to develop and goes a long way. Another way in which you can put yourself out there is by trying out new opportunities, such as meeting new people or trying a new activity. However, putting yourself out there doesn’t have to come from doing concrete things. Putting yourself out there can even come from being vulnerable and expressing yourself. Furthermore, one of the most underrated ways in which you can put yourself out there is by simply showing up every day, even if you are going through a tough time.

There are lots of reasons why putting yourself out there is important, which we will now explore further:

Putting yourself out there gets you noticed, which acts as a good foundation.

Nearly all of us wants to take on opportunities that are exciting and allows us to grow. However, a lot of opportunities out there are ones where another person either has to offer you that opportunity or help you in some way to get that opportunity. For anyone to help you get a given opportunity, they need to first know who you are. Putting yourself out there enables you to get noticed by other people, leading to more people knowing who you are. This serves a good foundation, as the more people that know who you are, the more opportunities you are going to get. A good example to illustrate this is from my own personal experiences. I have got several public speaking opportunities in the last couple of years. Most of these public speaking opportunities have come from people recommending me to be a speaker at a given event. For these people to have recommended me in the first place, they needed to know me and my abilities, and that all started from putting myself out there.

Putting yourself out there helps develop resilience.

In my opinion, resilience is one of the most important skills you can develop. Putting yourself out there requires resilience in so many ways. For example, if you are putting yourself out there by trying something new, then you are being resilient by challenging yourself to do something new. If you are putting yourself out there to seek new opportunities, then you may face rejection, and it takes resilience to overcome rejection. Furthermore, if you are putting yourself out there by showing up even if you are having a bad day, then you are being resilient as well. It shouldn’t be underestimated that putting yourself out there is tough and at times can be a steep learning curve. However, one of the main things you gain from putting yourself out there is the ability to be resilient, which is an amazing skill to have for whatever you do.

Putting yourself out there leads to unexpected opportunities.

Sometimes, we don’t want to put ourselves out there in certain situations because we feel we won’t enjoy it or see the point of it. However, one of the beautiful parts of life is that things can happen in unexpected ways. This can lead to unexpected opportunities that you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. For example, you may hate networking events and feel that either won’t benefit from them or that there is no point of them. However, if you put yourself out there in a networking event, you may happen to connect with someone that helps you find your dream job later on in the line. Ultimately, if you are open minded when putting yourself out there, then you are likely to get some sort of unexpected opportunity, and some of these unexpected opportunities can be life changing.

How I put myself out there

Personally, I put myself out there in lots of different ways, especially when it comes to my neurodiversity work. For example, I post on Linkedln about my lived experiences. This has helped me connect with people that read these posts that I wouldn’t have connected with otherwise, which has been rewarding in so many ways. Furthermore, another way which I put myself out there (which I am continuing to develop) is by being proactive where possible, whether that is in the workplace, by taking the initiative to reach out to people, or by other ways. Whilst I put myself out there in a lot of ways, one thing I am working on is to put myself out there more consistency, and close to a daily basis.