Dial Up Your Courage

I’ve been writing in a journal off and on since I was eleven. While my entries have evolved since my ‘tween’ years, a common thread has woven through many of them:

COURAGE. Or more precisely, the need to dial it up!

Of course, courage comes in many forms and be difficult in different ways. The courage to…

• not let what others think pilot your life.
• take the high path and do what’s right over what’s easy.
• step away from the familiar and embrace uncertainty.
• pursue big goals even when they daunt you.
• say no, and risk disappointing people.
• let your children spread their wings and forge their own path.
• trust yourself to meet your biggest challenges.
• have the tough conversations you’d rather avoid.
• say sorry, confide a struggle or share a secret.
• risk rejection and mistakes and failure.
• forgive yourself for your mistakes and forgive others for theirs’.
• call it quits when what you’re doing is simply not serving you.

Dialing up your courage requires rising above your instinctive desire to avoid risk and play it safe. Because let’s face it, unless we intentionally choose to be brave, our innate desire to stay safe and avoid discomfort will win out.

Tacitus once said that “Our desire for safety stands against every great and noble endeavour.” It also stands against you ever enjoying all that you most want – in your work, in your home, in the relationships you build and the impact you make – and changing what you don’t; what weighs you down and keeps you from feeling more joy, gratitude, connection and contentment in your life today.

If you haven’t got a journal, I hope you’ll get one. Better still, I encourage you to pick up a copy of my new book Make Your Mark: A Guidebook for the Brave Hearted. As I wrote in Make Your Mark:

Courage is indispensable for creating what you want most – in work, leadership and life – and changing what you don’t. Nothing can ever take the place of brave purposeful action in the face of fear.”

Below is a video from my Live Brave Day in Melbourne featuring a few of the brave hearted women (and men) who came along! More info at here.

As always, live bravely. What you want most is riding on it.