People are always telling me how brave I am when speaking openly about my mental health issues or negative life circumstances. They tell me I'm brave for making it through some of the things I've been through. But, where do bravery and courage come from?
Where does a soldier get the courage to go on a tour? Where does a performer get the courage to go out on stage in front of hundreds of thousands of people? Where do children get the courage to jump out of the tree, resulting in a broken arm?
When we think of these types of scenarios we see someone with no fear. Nothing shakes them in terms of the situations in which we're speaking. Is that what you're picturing? That is the definition of someone showing courage, correct? Wrong.
The definition(s) of courage are:
-the ability to do something that frightens one
-strength in the face of pain or grief
So, by definition, if someone is showing courage, it is the exact opposite of having no fear. It is doing something despite the fear or pain. It is an innate inner knowing that - whether you fail or not - you'd rather try and fail rather than not try at all. It's a curiosity, and a pushing of one's own limits, to see where the boundaries are and what you can accomplish.
By showing courage in the face of something frightening or dangerous, or painful, you can learn something important about yourself. Once you learn where your boundaries are, you can choose to leave them as is, or push yourself to get further. There's a magic in wanting to know what you're missing by not trying. It pushes even the most cautious of people to test themselves - and that's the only way we grow.
So while on the exterior courage may look stoic - it is, in fact, anything but. And tapping into that innate inner knowledge is one of the keys to help you grow and find the parts of yourself that are outside the boundaries.
