The Ten Lessons About Courage

Today I would like to share about the lessons I learnt about courage. When I say courage or bravery, I mean the same. There are many great books written about courage. Many of us speak about courage especially to those whom we presume are hesitating to perform an action for their well-being. We watch movies of our favorite stars doing heroic acts and we gain a sudden boost of courageous energy. The word encourage has the word courage in it. When we encourage someone, we are telling them to “take the step forward.” I remembered once a mystic teacher told me that courage comes from a latin root cor, and cor means heart. Hence, courage means living with the heart. Courage is never about being completely fearless. Courage is about moving forward in spite of the fears.

Courage is never an act of foolishness and abstinence. I will never dive into a river full of crocodiles, enter into a lion’s cage or run into a field of fire and call myself courageous. On the other hand, bullying, name calling, threatening, discrimination, ungrounded aggression, group attacks, abusing and doing any morally unjustified actions are deemed acts of foolishness. In a workplace, where an employer exploits power to abuse subordinates with subtle threats and passive aggression is an exemplary of non-courageous act.

Abstinence — is avoiding a problem, challenge or adversity. Some may have avoided speaking up for themselves, allowed themselves to be poorly treated or have given up battling through unfair circumstances. Personally, I have come across such acquaintances who “reframed and rationalized their acts of abstinence as taking calculated risks,” to save their ego.

I have compassion for my acquaintances who didn’t take the efforts to speak up for themselves despite encountering several episodes of bullying, oppression and humiliation. When they shared with me that they were taking calculated risks, I was just wondering on whether they lacked sense of self-awareness or have never come to an agreement with themselves that they have fallen into the victim mode. Nevertheless, they have been coping pretty well with challenging situations through avoidance, submission and good rationalizations.

I would like share a bit on what it means by taking calculated risks to give my readers a brief insight. Taking calculated risks means, having a forethought on what would be the consequences of an action and then planning a strategy to handle those consequences when they arise. It is about weighing the pros and cons of several actions and taking the best action to battle the situation. Though in certain situations, avoidance may be a viable option, it shouldn’t be used as a fixed option to cope with all challenging situations. Taking calculated risks is about minimizing the risk to gain maximum success, it is never about avoiding risks totally.

I learnt that it is good to be receptive to the suggestions of others if it facilitates positive change in us. With profound sense of self — awareness, we could embrace our limitations and convert them to personal strengths. However, when negative assumptions, judgmental criticisms and unconscious remarks are thrown on us, we have to be wary and conscious on whether fear has prevented us from advocating for ourselves. “We are rewarding a person to treat us unfairly if there is no reprimand from our side.”

One of the best places to study how courage plays an important role, is to study behavior at workplaces. After being unfairly criticized by colleagues and employers, some chose to do nothing to speak up for themselves.

I am going to share 10 lessons that I learnt about courage over the years through bitter but blissful experiences. While exploring deeper about courage, I learned that courage is innately supplemented with confidence, intelligence and self-awareness. I trust these lessons would be beneficial to face and resolve challenges courageously.

• Courage is taking the necessary steps to battle through a situation in spite of the fears. If we never develop any fear or hesitation before doing a rightful action, then it’s not courage.

• Courage is about stepping up to face adversity with morally justified actions. Actions done with bad intentions of harming others are never acts of courage.
• Courage is about having forethoughts and strategies to handle and overcome the adversity that lies in front and ahead of us. It is important to be mentally clear and never allow our emotions to cloud our thinking in this process. (Intelligence)
• Courage is an action that happens in our daily life battles. We do not have to be at war to be courageous. A daily warrior is courageous. Advocating, protecting and standing up for morally justified actions on a daily basis are acts of courageousness.
• Courage is never always about avoidance, it is about facing the adverse situation and then engineering it to our best advantage. We build the ability use the limited resources within and beyond us to gain maximum advantage out of the adversity.
• Courage is having a sense of faith. It is about believing in ourselves or higher powers that we are able to handle diligently the most terrifying situation and challenges that are yet to come. (Confidence)
• Courage is action oriented. We don’t have to verbally say it every time, we dive into actions.
• Courage is fueled by grounded aggression. Grounded aggression is the ability to use your temper instead of losing it. Some misconstrue that an angry person is brave while some say aggression should be suppressed. We should understand that aggression is a natural emotion in us. Instead of suppressing or releasing it unconsciously, transform it to fuel our courage. Fear dies in the presence of grounded aggression. (Self-Awareness)
• Courage is never always the roar, it is the ability to respond clearly, calmly and consciously too. (Intelligence)

The last lesson I learnt is, courage is like a muscle. We have to keep using it to grow it strong. It is always good to ask ourselves questions about our own thoughts and feelings, this could help us to assess and evaluate our daily actions. Instead of being consumed by our fears, we will gain the ability to use our fears as a bridge to cross the path towards success.

I hope you enjoyed my story. Let’s embark on a courageous journey together!