Courage: Master The Fear

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear."--Mark Twain

I looked at the definition of courage in the dictionary. And found an interesting definition. 'Courage: The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc. without fear or bravery.'

I'm not sure I buy into that one. To me, courage is doing what needs to be done in spite of fear. I think bravery, for example, in particular is a way of thinking about our lives such that we are doing what we need to do even though we have fear about doing it.

Genuinely courageous and brave people don't lack fear. They are acting in spite of the fear. I define courage and bravery as doing what needs to be done in spite of fear. If it didn't have the element of fear, why would we need the courage to do it?

Think of a time when you should have taken some sort of action but didn't. Why didn't you move forward? What prevented you from acting? Think about this.

Now think of another time when you needed to act but didn't. Or when you didn't act as completely as you should have. And remember why you didn't take action that time.

What were the similarities between these events? What was common about them? If you think about it, you're going to find that there was one common denominator, and maybe you'll find a bunch, but there's at least one, and that is there's probably some kind of fear.

The big question is, what would have happened if you had acted despite your fear? Work through these two events in your mind and think about how it could have gone the other way. What might the outcome have been if you had pushed through the fear? And what is the absolute worst thing that could have resulted if things didn't go your way?

Let's go back to the first event that you thought of and let's just say that whatever this event was, you chose either not to act or not to act as fully as you might have.

Is it possibly you might have succeeded if you had acted? How bad could your 'worst case scenario' outcome have really been? Would you have been fired? Would you have been told 'no'? Would someone have cursed at you?

My next question. . . could you have lived with that outcome? I'd wager that your answer is yes. You could have absolutely lived with that worst case scenario.

Oscar Wilde once said, "One's real life is often the life that one does not lead." What is the real life that you're not living because of a lack of courage? Conversely, in what ways have you acted despite your fear that have changed your life for the better?

About the Author

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.

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