What Does It Mean To Be Courageous?

Do You Have The Courage?

What does it mean to be courageous? Often, we think of being courageous as something only heroes do, as a fireman races into a buring building or as a lifeguard jumps in the ocean to save someone drowning. But, every day people like you perform courageous acts every single day. When you pick up the phone to cold call, when we ask for a price reduction, when you ask for a raise, when you start a new project, we are being courageous. Acting with courage is simply about stepping out of our comfort zones. Being courageous is about breaking the barriers and not allowing our limiting beliefs stop us from accomplishing what we want. It's about following through with your dreams when everyone and everything around you says it's impossible to do.

Consider This

For many of us, we tend to discredit ourselves on being courageous because we don't fully acknowledge all of our accomplishments. When we do things that makes us nervous, scares us, makes our heart race, or temporarily stops us in our tracks, we are being courageous. If you were courageous today, what would you do? Ask yourself this question and it will give you some insight as to the things you would normally avoid doing. Asking ourselves this simple question can help keep us laser focused and help us recognize opportunities that are available if only we will be courageous enough to go after them.

Reflections

What would you do today if you had the courage to do so? Why not go for it?

My Request

Today, begin to pay attention to the opportunities you have to be courageous. Challenge yourself to do at least three courageous things during the rest of the week. Notice how it makes you feel approaching the task, how you feel when you do it, and how you feel if you don't do it. The more you can get present to where you are being stopped, the more opportunities you will have to be courageous and get them done.

Notable Quotes

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." Alan Cohen

"Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts." Aristotle

"Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." Dorothy Thompson

Jerry Gertes