Life is uncertain. We constantly encounter situations that are out of our control and for which we are unprepared. Worse yet, our actions sometimes - in spite of our best efforts -  result in negative events that cause us to feel like we are being punished. To continue to move forward, to take risks, requires courage.

But what is courage, exactly, and how do we develop it?

Fear is A Constant

Conscious life, by its very nature, requires that we take risks. There is no other path of action. If we simply sit in our bedrooms, we run the risk of social isolation, ill health - mental and physical - and loss of income, self-esteem and meaning among other things.

As soon as we leave our comfort zones; physical, metaphysical, mental, emotional and otherwise, chaos lurks around every corner, at every decision point.

It is not possible to be inactive and hope for the best; the path of no action its itself an action, a choice.

For this reason, uncertainty and fear will be present - to some degree - for the duration of our lives.

Courage, then, is action in the presence of fear.

Many celebrated individuals have come to this same conclusion, as they have attempted to define courage:

Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.
― John Wayne

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

But courage - as an action, a value, a commitment - encompasses much more than random activity in the face of fear.

The Power of Action

With courage, we allow fear to motivate us, to empower our decisions and actions.

It is as though fear exerts a pressure on us, pushes us with almost physical force. If that force is in front of us, we are pushed back away from action, from our goals and dreams.

But when we push through fear, it is now behind us and can propel us forward.

This is an important distinction: courage is more than just taking action when we are afraid; it includes using fear to animate us, to get us moving.

This concept can be seen at even the most base of physiologic reactions. When faced with danger, our autonomic nervous systems engage a sympathetic, adrenergic response: fight or flight (or freeze, but that is a trauma-conditioned variant to be discussed elsewhere).

So what is this “fight or flight” response? It is fear motivating action.

Bad guy (or saber-toothed tiger, or fire in the house) in front of us? A powerful cascade mechanism is automatically unleashed to enable action: Heartbeat increases, in terms of volume and rate, as does ventilation. We breathe faster and more deeply, our pupils and our bronchi dilate, epinephrine and norepinephrine (“adrenaline”) are released from adrenal glands and synapses, blood is shunted to skeletal muscles and much more. The message?

Move! Run and/or fight, as the situation dictates.

We can choose to adopt this adaptive strategy in response to more mundane, less immediate life concerns as well. Learn to let fear push you to a decision and an action:

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy!
― Dale Carnegie

Courage is moving from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
― Winston Churchill

Courage isn't having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don't have strength.
― Napoleon Bonaparte

Courage as Belief

Finally, courage requires belief. You must believe that you can trust your own judgement.

When there are no guarantees, you base your actions upon your life experience, your memories and judgement. Your decisions are made in the belief that things will be better - or at least survivable - as a result of your actions.

You trust yourself to make the right move; to swerve right or left to avoid a deer in the road, or attempt a first kiss, or invest in the stock market. And a million other decisions and actions that comprise the fabric of human life.

As you take risks and make good decisions and execute actions with positive outcomes, courage becomes not just a necessity, but an exhilarating possibility:

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
― T. S. Eliot

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.
― Ray Bradbury

Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.
― Maya Angelou

Beyond that, courage enables us to break with convention, to forge new paths, to express our unique authenticity:

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
― Erich Fromm

The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.
― Rollo May

Every necessity and convenience you enjoy was once a risk, from the development of penicillin and electric lights to the creation of cars, microwaves and AI. Without courage, those risks would have never been transformed into success.

Courage

Courage is fear transformed into motivation.

When you change your mindset to see fear as rocket fuel for your actions, your life is activated. When others are stymied, you move forward and achieve your goals.

Every time you risk and win, your decisions become more focused, your resolve emboldened. And when you risk and fail, you move beyond fear and allow your experience to better inform your next decisions and propel you to greater heights.

And courage enables you to be your best and most original self; to truly pursue your purpose without reservation:

He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.
― Jean-Luc Godard



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- JWW