The Power of Showing Weakness
Background:
- Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan (26 years old)
- Met the Gach’s in 2002 and have been a close family friend since then
- Lives in New York, working at a management consulting firm
First, I want to start out by saying that I’m grateful and honored to be a part of this blog since the Gach’s have been a very close family friend of mine for almost 20 years. I’ve been spending time with them in the past few weeks because I’m going through a medical issue which required surgery. Since none of my family members are in the U.S., they have offered to help out with everything I need to get through this.
Prior to finding out what the medical issue was, I went through some of the worst physical pain that I’ve experienced; and was both physically and mentally drained. With the help of the Gach’s, I got connected to the right doctors and they were able to diagnose the issue. Although it was not a life or death issue, I needed surgery, which would put a big pause in my life for a couple months. In the grand scheme of things, this was a minor setback, but it was a big deal to me.
Throughout my life, whenever I hit a roadblock, I have usually internalized everything and tried to work through them on my own. Perhaps it’s my personality, but I am not a fan of exposing my weakness to others - even to my family members. However, given this was my first surgery, and feeling vulnerable mentally, I opened up everything I was feeling to Jake, Ikuko-san and Bob. I won’t get into the details, but knowing that I had the support from them allowed me to face the surgery head-on and all the obstacles I would face after.
What I want to share today are some lessons that I’ve learned throughout this process.
Lesson 1: Embrace vulnerability – It’s important to show weakness or your raw emotions when you feel low or when facing a difficult situation. The support you receive will make you realize that you’re not alone and that you can get through any obstacles.
Lesson 2: Don’t internalize everything – Just as in my case, it doesn’t matter who you reach out to. It can be a family member, friend, significant other, etc. You will realize there are certain thoughts that you never knew existed and speaking to others will help you reveal them. Based on my experience, speaking to the Gach’s also gave me a great sense of relief.
Lesson 3: Fuel the weakness into positive energy – Perhaps the most important lesson from this experience is turning your vulnerability and all the negative thoughts into positive energy. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself, think of it as an opportunity to make progress in your life. I have identified goals (professionally, mentally and physically) that I want to accomplish during my recovery period, which has completely changed my perspective on the entire situation.
At the time of writing this blog, I am 2 weeks into my post-op recovery, and it couldn’t be going better. I truly feel blessed everyday to have the Gach’s and all my friends and family to support me throughout the process. Though this is completely based on personal experience, I hope that reading this will give encouragement to anyone going through adversity.