“Courage is not the absence of fear but the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all. For now you are traveling the road between who you think you are and who you can be.” Meg Cabot
I wake up every morning like thousands of other people in our county, look in my bathroom mirror, take a deep breath and resolve to be brave.
My act of everyday bravery isn’t about rushing into a burning building to save a life. It isn’t about placing myself in harms way for a citizen. It isn’t even about fighting off someone who is a potential threat to my loved ones. My act is a smaller act of bravery; but like those thousands of others who join me; my act is that I go beyond my comfort zone each and every day. I push myself to do something I am either uncomfortable with or not particularly wanting to do. I do something that scares me. I face my fear and that fear is being the ‘me’ that I was born to be.
“That’s not frightening,” you say. “What’s so fearful about being yourself?”
Well, if you believe, as I and many others believe, that you have a great destiny in this lifetime, that you were created for greatness and that you will never truly know your purpose in life until you reach that destiny; then you understand the ‘bravery’ that it takes each morning. Most of us have to be brave because we find ourselves seemingly ill equipped for this mission and that the faith that we are here for a purpose is our only weapon.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
My ‘fear of failure’, in this mission to reach my full potential, drives me to get out of bed on mornings when the rain is drizzling against my window pane, the sky is gray, the weather is cold, I am feeling weak and exhausted and I would like nothing more than to stay in bed with a good book and a hot cup of tea. It drives me to go help one more person, smile at one more passerby, go to one more meeting and shake one more hand.
You see, we ‘brave ones’ hear little voices in our heads that try to turn us back from our appointed missions. Those voices try to remind us that we have too much or not enough looks, brains, money, degrees, kids, spouses, friends, reputation, experience, health, energy, time or control.
We hear those voices and keep on going. We face our fears and do it anyway. Why? Because there is a stronger voice that nudges us towards our goals of being good providers, great parents, better spouses, mentoring bosses, loyal friends, successful business owners and the people we were born to be.
They do not give medals for this everyday type of bravery. There is nothing that someone can pin upon your chest or bestow upon you that pronounces that you bravely faced each day not knowing what would be ahead and yet you did it with a prayer and a smile. The only reward you may ever get for facing your fears and reaching your full potential are the final words, ”She made a difference.”
I wake up every morning like thousands of other people in our county, look in my bathroom mirror, take a deep breath and resolve to be brave.
My act of everyday bravery isn’t about rushing into a burning building to save a life. It isn’t about placing myself in harms way for a citizen. It isn’t even about fighting off someone who is a potential threat to my loved ones. My act is a smaller act of bravery; but like those thousands of others who join me; my act is that I go beyond my comfort zone each and every day. I push myself to do something I am either uncomfortable with or not particularly wanting to do. I do something that scares me. I face my fear and that fear is being the ‘me’ that I was born to be.
“That’s not frightening,” you say. “What’s so fearful about being yourself?”
Well, if you believe, as I and many others believe, that you have a great destiny in this lifetime, that you were created for greatness and that you will never truly know your purpose in life until you reach that destiny; then you understand the ‘bravery’ that it takes each morning. Most of us have to be brave because we find ourselves seemingly ill equipped for this mission and that the faith that we are here for a purpose is our only weapon.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
My ‘fear of failure’, in this mission to reach my full potential, drives me to get out of bed on mornings when the rain is drizzling against my window pane, the sky is gray, the weather is cold, I am feeling weak and exhausted and I would like nothing more than to stay in bed with a good book and a hot cup of tea. It drives me to go help one more person, smile at one more passerby, go to one more meeting and shake one more hand.
You see, we ‘brave ones’ hear little voices in our heads that try to turn us back from our appointed missions. Those voices try to remind us that we have too much or not enough looks, brains, money, degrees, kids, spouses, friends, reputation, experience, health, energy, time or control.
We hear those voices and keep on going. We face our fears and do it anyway. Why? Because there is a stronger voice that nudges us towards our goals of being good providers, great parents, better spouses, mentoring bosses, loyal friends, successful business owners and the people we were born to be.
They do not give medals for this everyday type of bravery. There is nothing that someone can pin upon your chest or bestow upon you that pronounces that you bravely faced each day not knowing what would be ahead and yet you did it with a prayer and a smile. The only reward you may ever get for facing your fears and reaching your full potential are the final words, ”She made a difference.”
Go out and ‘Make A Difference’.
Thanks for this post! I happen to begin to rethink bravery after watching a documentary on someone who showed much bravery. I asked, where's mine? What happened to it?
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the blogging. Lynx