Having Courage

It's a word I have been thinking about a lot lately.  Tony Robbins says that courage is not the absence of fear.  I get what he means - fear is natural and necessary in certain situations.  Fear catapults us to action in the event of an emergency.  It gets the heart pumping and the adrenaline flowing and is the fuel we need at times to make things happen.

Sometimes though, fear works overtime and keeps us from doing the things we want to do.  It can be such a block that it causes us to become frozen and we can even become convinced we no longer want what we once thought we did.  Courage on the other hand, is what we use to accomplish a goal in spite of the fear.  Courage and fear are never really far apart - i think of them as feuding brothers.  Fear says, "you can't do that, you will fail, you're not good enough, you don't have enough experience, what will people think?"  Courage says, "you can do it, you are awesome, you know what you want, trust yourself, go for it!"  Being courageous is when we are so scared to do something.. but do it anyway because it is the right thing to do.  Courage kicks in when the pain of not doing what we want becomes greater than the fear of doing it.  Courage is not the absence of fear, but works in spite of fear, pushing it to the background.

I've often thought I'd like a tattoo similar to the one pictured above, but mine would start with a capital "C" because for me, the things that matter often start with courage.  I remember being asked, "will you let fear decide for you?" and that question comes up in my mind time and time again.  I have let fear make many of my decisions in the past - too many really.  But I have also found the courage to push ahead and face fear, going for what I wanted in spite of it.  Courage is always there.

If our purpose in this life is to just be ourselves without fear, than finding courage in spite of fear will reveal us at our best.  To me, a life filled with courage is a life lived on purpose, a life of freedom and of choice and a life filled with doing exactly what I want to do.  I often wonder how different my life would be today if I had never pushed fear aside and mustered the courage to say or do what was needed.

What about you?  What would having more courage mean in your life?  Tell me in the comments below, I'd love to know.