The Courage of Your Convictions

This month I was interview by Megan Raphael, author of The Courage Code, on her monthly call, Conversations with a Woman of Courage. I enjoyed my time with everyone on the call. Thank you, Megan. You can visit Megan's website and listen to her courage conversations at http://www.courageproject.com/workshops.html

So I've found myself musing about courage. My dictionary tells me, that courage is "the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear." I don't believe it. Who are we kidding? When did we learn that courage means without fear? I must have been absent that day. Why can't fear sit side by side with the valor and victory we associate with courageous acts? And how did this definition get so distorted? A quick trip to my etymology dictionary tells me that the Latin root of courage, cor, means heart, “which remains a common metaphor for inner strength.” When I am being courageous, my courage comes from my heart in spite of my fear, not instead of it.

In more primitive times, our courageous acts were merely a fear-induced survival instinct to fight or flee from an immediate danger. We survived because of a nice, healthy fear. Today, mostly, we fear the consequences of imagined things yet to come, not anything real and looming. So today's courageous acts are our willingness to move through our contrived fear. That kind of courage comes from a softer more intuitive and “heart-felt” feeling that our conviction about what we desire is greater than our imagined fear. When we have that sense, that knowing from our heart and not our mind that our convictions are right, we don't need to fight or flee. We simply flow.

So as 2007 ends, take a look at your manufactured fears and use them to do something courageous, something heartfelt, for yourself. I’ll smile and wave as I see you bouncing downstream and flowing gently into 2008. Cheers!


Here are a few Courage quotes to take to "heart."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." Ambrose Redmoon

"Courage is tiny pieces of fear all glued together." Irisa Hail

"Courage is being scared to death...and saddling up anyway." John Wayne

The Spirit of Adventure

I just returned from the first of what I'm sure will be many Adventure Coach Outings on South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan. This one was designed to help coaches make nature, the outdoors and adventure a part of their practice and offerings.

Thank you, Randy, Robyn, Joelle, Kelly, Karen and Mary Kay!

Besides entertaining me with some outrageous antics and humor, these coaches from Colorado, Minnesota and Ontario helped me expand my definition of adventure. I'm so much clearer about what I want adventure to be for me.

Risk: To embark on a true adventure, I must experience some dare and the courage to push beyond adversity and boundaries. This is not to say that my adventures must be life and limb threatening. While I enjoy a little adrenaline now and then, I don't have to chase tornadoes or triumph over nature in some way. The risk can come from stretching myself a little more by dropping an old belief I have held and trying something new.

Expansion: Through exploration and discovery my knowledge and experience expands. I learn something new or get clearer about my environment, others, and myself.

Wandering: In my adventures there is some unknown, some mystery. I feel adventurous when I wander just enough that I don't know how something will work out, who I may meet, how I might get from point A to point B, or maybe even when the adventure will end. Even better if something is left at the end of my adventure that remains unsolved.

Internal: My adventures are as much internal as they are external. Even when adventuring with others, part of what is happening within me is very solitary, very personal and internal. And if I've done the internal part right, it continues long after the physical adventure has ended.

Earned: I want an adventure that gives me the feeling of having “earned” something. Of having paid my dues in some way. And my reward is that at the end of the adventure, the simple things in my life now feel exquisite.

"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not knows no release from little things; knows not the livid loneliness of fear nor mountain heights where bitter joys can hear the sounds of wings." ~Amelia Earhart