I’ve been thinking a lot about courage lately. It’s probably because I’m approaching one of the scarier things I’ve attempted in my life. But also possibly because there has been quite a bit of unrest and fear in our nation lately. Fear seems to be one of the prevailing feelings about the future.
Fear is a fact of human life. I read somewhere that we are only born with the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises but then we develop all of our other fears as we grow. Fear is a human trait that sometimes acts as part of our survival instinct. But there is another part of fear that is detrimental to our lives. It is the fear that holds us back from doing great things. The type of fear that sometimes stops us from stepping out in faith. It is the brand of fear that keeps us in the safe and predictable area called comfortable.
No one is courageous all the time. And one of the things I have learned in my life is that you can sometimes borrow strength and courage from others. It is one of the reasons I am collector of quotes. It’s a way to draw from the wisdom and strength of others. Here are a few I’ve been drawing from this week.
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. -Anais Nin
I want a big life. Fear makes life small.
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. -Theodore Roosevelt
I’ve said this before; I would rather look back and admit I failed than look back and admit I was too afraid to try.
Scared is what you are feeling. Brave is what you are doing. -Emma Donoghue (Room)
It’s important to separate the feeling from the action. Be brave. Be strong. Your feelings should be given very little influence over those actions.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear. -Mark Twain
Courage comes from fighting fear, not running from it.
You can accomplish amazing things if you put aside your fear of rejection and jump in. -Mark Burnett
Fear of rejection is one of the greatest human fears. But great things are only found when you overcome it.
Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength. -Napoleon Bonaparte
Strength is found on the other side of fear.
Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. -Atticus Finch (Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird)
Bravery is having enough faith to do your job regardless of the outcome, and sometimes even in spite of it.
Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. -John Wayne
Giddyup.
The prevailing theme of most of these quotes is that fear, or the removal of it, isn’t the factor; but courage is acting in spite of your fear. Courage is leaning into your fear. Embracing it and going through it to the other side. That is where you become who you are supposed to be. That is where you accomplish big things.
Here are three things I try to keep in mind when fighting my own fears:
Avoiding fear makes it stronger. Fighting fear makes me stronger.
Sometimes just getting out of bed is brave. Today I just need to be a little more brave than I was yesterday.
Fear is a feeling. Courage is a choice.
So choose courage. Be brave. Because strength is found on the other side of fear.
I’ll see you on the other side.
