"Courage" October 2005

1) Courage comes in many flavours.

In general courage is defined as the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere and withstand danger, fear or adversity. It is staunchness of mind and of will. It is the strength to face opposition and not allow it to stop you. It is the strength to cope with hardship. It is maintaining your dignity when it is difficult to do so. Courage gives you the empowerment of steely determination. It enables you to strive towards noble aspirations.

2) Have Courage to Change

Whenever we have repeated a pattern many times, it is difficult to change. But all patterns ultimately can in fact be changed. It is a question of having a clear goal - and then being motivated to take action.

It is easier to change patterns when two parties are willing to work together. If you are the only one, it takes more strength, more courage, and more resilience. That's why cooperation is essential in a marriage.

Realize that if you ever feel discouraged, your attitude of discouragement is a greater problem than any external hardship. You can change your attitude.

3) True Courage

There are many forms of courage:

Have the courage to ask people for help when you need it.

Have the courage to say, "I don't know."

Have the courage to ask questions when you don't understand something.

Have the courage to push forward even if you might make mistakes.

Have the courage to do the will of our Creator.

4) Courage Creates Greatness

Courage is the quality of great people. More accurately it is a quality that creates greatness. Courage is the quality of people throughout the ages who were willing to sacrifice everything to live a true and spiritual life. It is the quality that will elevate and empower you throughout your life.

5) Courage Is Relative

Courage is subjective and relative. For example, some people are naturally assertive. They can easily speak up. They can easily ask others for things. They can easily ask questions. They can easily stick up for their rights. Others are naturally intimidated. They would rather do without, than say things that everyone would agree they have a right to say. For them, asking for what they need is an act of courage. Asking questions is an act of courage. Sticking up for rights is an act of courage.

6) Courage To Remember

Every person alive will have memories of saying or doing something that took courage. And every person alive will have memories when they lacked courage. Remember your best moments and build on them.

7) Upgrade Your Courage

Every time you upgrade your brain with courage in any context, you can create an automatic upgrade of courage in all contexts. This general principle is true for all attributes and states. It is especially important to realize this when it comes to courage.

There is a powerful slogan to help us remember this valuable principle: "This, too, will upgrade my courage." The more courage something takes, the more courage you have available for the rest of your life.

8) Find The Courage

Each and every day look for an opportunity to do an act of courage. Some days this will be easy to find. You might find that the acts of courage that come your way are more than you bargained for. Other days, you might have to search for something you can say or do that will be an act of courage. The fact that you are seeking courageous opportunities automatically makes you a more courageous person.

9) Courage Builds Self-Respect

Courage builds self-respect. When you sacrifice for principles and ideas, you increase your self-respect. When you face a painful situation and react with dignity, you increase your self-respect. When you say, "No," to temptation even though others will try to persuade opposition to stop you from doing what you know must be done, you increase your self-respect. In short, every act of courage makes you feel better about yourself.

10) Experience Is An Antidote To Fear

Experience is a great antidote to fear. If you are afraid to do something and you actually do it a number of times, it gets easier. When you do something by acting "as if" you had the courage to do it, the actual experiences automatically build up your knowledge that you can do that thing you previously feared to do.

11)  “Courage And Humility”

Humility makes it easier to have courage. Humility frees you from worrying about how others perceive you. You have less of a need to make a good impression on people, so you are more open to learn new things. You don't mind if people see you as imperfect, or that you are not as skilled or talented as you would like to be. An arrogant or conceited person always needs to appear to be perfect, to be highly skilled and talented. This creates tension and anxiety. The truly humble person is calmer and more relaxed.

12) Build up your own courage

When you build up your own courage, you will be able to serve as a coach to others. Some of the best courage coaches are those who had to struggle to attain the courage they now have. Since it didn't come easy to them, they know what it's like to lack the courage to do what others consider easy.

13) Extent of your goals

Others cannot know the full extent of your goals, aspirations, dreams, visions, wishes, hopes, and prayers. These can be much more courageous than anyone else might imagine. Here it is important to have a mixture of present reality, with believing that the Almighty can enable you to accomplish and become much more than anyone can know.