Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear is not absence of fear…

Great quote by Mark Twain

If you look at definition of courage in the dictionary it reads something like this…

Courage: The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, uncertainty or intimidation, etc without fear or bravery.

What does courage mean to you?

Dear Friend,

Do you think courage is doing what needs to be done in spite of fear?

Maybe courage in particular is a way of thinking about our lives and what we are doing…

And what we need to do even though we have fear about doing it.

People genuinely courageous and brave still have fear.

The only difference is they’re acting in spite of fear.

So let’s define courage in context to goal setting and how to reach your peak…

Setting Goals

The first component of courage answers these questions…

What does success look like in your situation?

Is it obtainable?

Does your goal defend or allow you to move forward in your strength, fitness, health and lifestyle?

If you can’t meet your primary goal…what is your secondary goal?

Determining Your Goals

The second component of courage asks these questions…

Just how important is it for you to achieve your goal or goals?

If you don’t act or do something will your health and lifestyle suffer?

Will your fitness be derailed?

Will you be able to look at yourself in the mirror?

Does the situation call for immediate action or something more nuanced and less risky?

Courage at the end of the day all boils down to doing what needs to be done in spite of fear and that’s real courage.

Courage has within it an inherited element of fear.

So why would we need courage?

Courage is doing what needs to be done in spite of what fear might be there.

Stop for a minute and think of a time when you should have taken action but you didn’t.

Do you remember why you didn’t act?

Think about it…why didn’t you take action?

Think of another time when you needed to act and you did not act.

Or if you didn’t act as fully as you should have.

Do you remember why you didn’t…

What were the similarities between these events?

What was common about them?

If you think about it, you’re going to find there was one common thread and maybe you’ll find a whole lot more that you didn’t know about yourself.

At least one truth and that’s probably got to do with some kind of fear.

So here’s the question: What would have happened had you acted anyway?

Go back to those two events we just thought through.

Now ask yourself what would have happened had you acted anyway.

Would it have worked out?

What’s the worst case scenario that would have happened had things not gone the way you hoped?

Let’s go back to the first event and say that whatever this event was, you chose either not to act or not to act as fully as you might have.

Might you have had success?

What’s the absolute worst thing that would have happened had things not gone the way you hoped for?

How bad could it have been?

Would you have been thrown out?

Would you have been cursed at?

Would you have been told no?

Could you have lived with that?

And I’ll bet you money the answer is…yes.

You could have lived through it even if the worst that would have happened and things not gone the way you hoped.

What is the real life you’re not living because of a lack of courage?

What ways have you acted despite your fear that have changed your life for the better?

Is courage the unconscious connection between conscience, fear and action, when something deep within us makes the spark of fire in our eyes as they burn so wild.

Courageous and mean as a tiger…until next time!

Courage