Have you ever had a vulnerability hangover?
By laurenspearman · September 16, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Have you ever had a vulnerability hangover?
I’d never heard the phrase until Abigail Dixon FCIM/ICF used it after I came off stage at Ideas Fest last week
I’d just finished 30-minute debate about AI and careers with Nishma Patel Robb 🪩⚡️ and out of everything I’d said my brain had chosen to fixate on one thing.
I’d been making a point about speed not always being a good thing and somehow ended up making a premature ejaculation joke referencing a Chandler from Friends quote: “It bodes well that speed pleases you.”
“Why on earth did I say that?”
Then again yesterday I was filming at LinkedIn HQ (there’s a sentence you don’t write very often!!) and the immediate post filming wobble came. I realise I do this all the time. Replaying, analysing, over analysing, remembering something I forgot to say etc.
The reality is maybe I always will…because I want to keep doing things that stretch me. Things that build my experience, competence and capability.
So I’m trying to reframe the vulnerability hangover. Yes, it’s good to analyse how we did and think about what we’d do differently next time, but alongside “What could I have done better?”, I’m trying to also ask myself “What did I do that stretched me?”
Both can be true: you can want to get better and still give yourself credit for doing the thing in the first place.
So I’m raising a glass to more vulnerability hangovers 🥂
📸: one of the few photos of Abby and not either camping on in matching PJs, taken at a Trinny London event earlier this year.