People intrinsically try to follow high expectations set by the society and show a better image of themselves. In such an environment showing your strengths is considered to be an advantage, and that is a reason why people might respect and love you. In theory.
In practice, while trying to look perfect we loose the opportunity to grow, to learn and to receive a tremendous feedback from people around. Ask yourself: will anyone give you a hand without you telling about the problem openly? Of course, no.
Secondly, it is much more difficult to build close relations without being vulnerable and sharing openly yourself. Vulnerability implies the opportunity of being hurt by opening and this concept was studied in detail by Brene Brown: http://brenebrown.com/. For people with their hesitations, problems, sad moments occuring sometimes it is easier to connect with the others. Because we all share some difficult moments, hearing someone having the same experience echoes in our hearts: “Exactly, I had the same feeling, how can I understand you!”.
Being vulnerable is unsecure and I have to admit, we should select to whom we open. Brene Brown suggests to choose those people, who will not fall into depression with you, but rather can empathize. Empathizing means the acceptance in all its meanings, accepting everything as it is without strict judgement. I would not share my weekness with the one, who starts to judge me saying, “I told you, you should have done it differently”.
My life has become much more harmonic, when I increased sharing my difficulties with people around. I feel myself more authentic and real, not spending the energy for keeping those akward memories only inside of my head. Only now I realize, why some people considered me not to be open enough and why it was difficult to make a deeper connection at times. Still, despite of mentioning weeknesses, I stick to the prevalence of positive attitude and readiness to make the actions, as this is the only way to proceed and fulfil your life full of meaning…