Courage may be thought of as strength in the face of pain or grief, or the ability to do that which frightens.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” —Nelson Mandela
Many times, we are aware of what needs to be done, even if we don’t know it fully, we sense it… or the famous “just have a feeling”. But for the fear of the unknown, we hesitate, wondering will it make sense? Will we get the support? And the most popular seems to be… will we fail?
What if, we were to change our outlook, and get excited? Accepting that we might very well fail, but the odds are, we are as likely to succeed? What happens when we realize that failure is just a perspective? And there is another view to the same situation, if we should just take a look from a different angle, then we would see the grand opportunity that is presented before us.
We don’t need to feel great, strong or even brave. We can feel the same way we do daily, but we keep moving forward. Doing those things that we wonder about when we have some free moments… and there are those that consume us, even when we are busy.
“Passion is what drives us crazy, what makes us do extraordinary things, to discover, to challenge ourselves. Passion is and should always be the heart of courage.” —Midori Komatsu
In the words of Mary Anne Radmacher, “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow.’” So, the simple try again is a huge characteristic of courage, yet many times, we give up… right when it’s about to happen.
Courage does not require us to be brave all the time, because “A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
With that said, will you do what needs to be done? Will I do it? Will we? Will we say yes to deep desires of our hearts? Will we do that which we know we should? Will we be brave… for our sake?