Image Credit: © Martin_Heigan
One of the intangible qualities you must develop in your quest for success is courage. Courage can be defined as the state or quality of mind or spirit that enables you to face danger with confidence and resolution. Courage includes…
- a reserve of moral strength on which you can draw on in times of emergency
- the capacity for rising to a challenge
- enduring stoutness of mind in time of severe trial
- steadfastness of purpose
- a positive expression of will directed toward achievement of personal goals
- persistence in facing obstacles
- steadfastness associated with strength of character
- physical and moral stamina in face of unfavourable odds
Courage may be called resolution, fortitude, tenacity, backbone, or just plain guts.
Courage seems to have gone out of style recently. We’ve come up with many substitutes for it. We decide to learn new skills before we act. We collect information, then do nothing and call it “playing safe”. We sit back and say “let somebody else do it”, or maybe “let the government do it”.
We’ve redefined the word “courage” by using it inappropriately to describe actions that are mere foolhardiness, reckless showing off, stupid risk taking, or simple thrill seeking. Using courage in this way makes it sound undesirable or immature and provides an excuse for not acting courageously.
But courage is one of the most important ingredients of success. Without courage, no amount of knowledge, no store of information, no creativity in planning, no amount of work can bring you success. Without courage you will eventually abandon your plans and quit.
A body at rest tends to stay at rest
Courage is the quality that gives you the incentive to start. It is a law of physics that a body at rest tends to stay at rest. It takes more energy and power to start your car than it does to keep it going once it has started. More force and power are required to change direction than to keep in a straight line. This law works for your activity as well. If you sit in your office or home waiting for your goals to pursue you, it is the easiest thing in the world to keep sitting there. And the longer you sit, the more power you will be forced to exert to propel you into action.
Assuming that you have intelligence and integrity, the quality most crucial to your success is courage. The courage to start. It takes courage to conduct a self-examination, to discover your strengths and weaknesses. And to plan how you’ll maximise your strengths and correct your weaknesses. It takes courage to believe in your ability to move into new, uncharted areas in the pursuit of your goals.
A body in motion tends to stay in motion
The greatest surge of courage necessary is the courage to begin. Once you start, you have the benefit of momentum to keep you moving. Overcoming inertia requires the greatest expenditure of energy and courage. Once you have overcome your inertia, the second part of that law of physics operates for you: a body in motion tends to stay in motion. When you exercise courage, more courage is available to you.
Fear Of Success
It is not unusual to hear people talking about the fear of failure and how it inhibits individual achievement. However, more and more psychologists are now demonstrating that there is actually more fear of success than fear of failure. Many people with outstanding potential lack the courage to pursue outstanding goals because they can’t visualise themselves in the situation that success would produce. As a result, they “play it safe”, and avoid the pursuit of the challenging goals they could reach. Such fear of success is one of the factors that limits the courage to start.
If you have set challenging goals and are finding it difficult to take the first action step, reinforce your courage with affirmation and visualisation. Intensify the input of positive thinking into your mental processes. Affirm your courage. Believe in it. And act upon it.
Taking Risks
You can never achieve challenging goals without being willing to take risks. It is impossible to wait until your have collected every possible bit of data before you make a decision. You can never receive a guarantee that any undertaking will be completely safe or risk free.
Life is one big series of risks. It is risky to start something new. It is risky to borrow money. It is risky to quit your job and start a business. It is risky to drive a car, or even cross the road. It is even risky to take a bath in your own home. Do you know how many accidents happen in the bathroom?
Consider the risk of playing it safe. If you refuse to risk making an investment, you will never receive a return on your money. If you fear to risk starting your own business, you will be tied to working for someone else forever instead of using your creativity and your potential to build the business of your dreams. If you are afraid to risk the criticism or rejection of other people, you will never make the discovery you could make, market the new product of which you dream, or achieve the goal that no one else believes to be attainable.
Probably the biggest risk of all is the risk to grow. To become the person you really want to be. Personal growth can be downright scary. It means taking out your old self-image that you are accustomed to living with, that is so comfortable, and looking at it in the blinding white light of self-examination. And then being willing to carve it up… lop off some of the old negative bits, glue on some new attitudes and habits, and give yourself a whole new look. There’s no guarantee ahead of time that you will like the new self-image any better than the old. But you will never know unless you have the courage to try.
Fear Of Failure
When are you a failure? Are you a failure when business slows down? Are you a failure when you don’t reach a particular goal? Are you a failure when you are discouraged? NO! Absolutely not! None of these things makes you a failure. You are a failure only when you quit trying. I’m going to say that again in big red letters…
You are a failure only when you quit trying.
Remember that. Write that truth indelibly into your heart and come back to it whenever you feel down and discouraged.
Till next time…
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I think you’re right Steve – courage plays a very big part in success because it’s scary to put yourself out there, exposed and sometimes alone.
If you want to be success you have to put yourself out there and a lot of people are afraid of that exposure and potential success.
Great view point!
Ben´s last blog ..Music: The Soundtrack to life
That is so true, Ben. Thanks for your comment, and RT, mate.
Twitter: SteveYoungs
I never understood the fear of success. When we’re young, we’re taught we can be/do anything, for the sake of our self esteem I guess. We have such firm ideas in our minds of what we will become, for the most part. Somehow on the way there, we make compromises and before too long we’re not a princess or a firefighter or a trauma surgeon.
Perhaps it’s not the fear of success that drives us away from our goals. Perhaps it’s the fear of the work we have to put into achieving them and the compromises we need to make to allay those fears that drive us off course.
I think you’ll find that what you are describing is more commonly called “laziness”
Thanks for stopping by, mate.
Twitter: SteveYoungs