Turning Cowardice into Courage

It has been said that courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to go on, to “do”, in spite of it Fear is an acronym for both Forget Everything And Rise and False Evidence Appearing Real. All these sayings are wonderful if you are not stuck in the mire unable to even consider the possibility of getting out. In that situation, the fear is very real, and very big and very untamable, I know. I am working through my own fears as well. I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you some insights I have gained.

The question is: “How do we go about turning cowardice into courage?” Here are three things we can do:

1.        

Name your fear(s)

What are you afraid of? If it remains unnamed it remains an abstract thought floating around in your brain, messing with your plans, preventing your progression. However, if you name it you can define it and you can limit it and there is a release that comes with finally putting all your fear out into the open.

The next question you have to ask is “why?” Why do you have this particular fear? Try to get to the root of it all. Here it doesn’t really matter whether the fear is rational or irrational because you can’t stop yourself from being afraid and therefore displaying cowardice by continuously telling yourself the fear is irrational. As far as I am concerned the fear is real and the work we do here is so that it doesn’t overtake our lives.

2.        

Do your homework

Once we figure out the “what’s” and “why’s” of our fear then we can start to work to mitigate at least some of the issues. We don’t have to work on it all at once, besides it’s better to break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks. Fear and by extension cowardice is precipitated first and foremost by a lack of knowledge. It is that lack of knowledge that sends us into the world of “what if’s”. What if this happens? What if this doesn’t happen? This can make us catastrophize everything. It’s funny that in the world of “what if’s” we seldom look at the positives such as “What if I do this and it comes out great and leads to this other great thing which becomes another great thing?” This would certainly change our perspective, but I digress.

The fact of the matter is that we need to increase our knowledge and our action on some level. Remember the Code: “Ignorance yet Knowledge”. The best way to gain knowledge is to ask questions. If you have friends and family who are well versed in what you are dealing with, ask them your questions. If you don’t, Google is a wonderful resource.

After gaining a bit of knowledge we can ask ourselves what it is that we don’t quite have a handle on that we can fix right now. For example, if you are afraid that you won’t have enough money at a particular point in time, take time now to save. Afraid that if you go somewhere you will be stranded? Make sure that you have a support network that can get you out of there in a pinch. Afraid plan A won’t work? Make a plan B, C, D, and E.    

3.      

 Open the door

For all of our naming and questioning and planning which undoubtedly gets us closer to facing the challenge, in the end we have to open the door, we have to take the risk. No matter how much we research and plan we will never have all the answers. Things seldom go as they are supposed to, but part of life is stepping out of your comfort zone. This is the only way that we can change and grow. Life moves on whether you choose to or not, but if you don’t move life will certainly pass you by.  Growth may mean death of what we know, the death of a particular comfort zone. Maybe that is why we sometimes cower in the face of potential change. But while growth means the death of one thing, it also always means the birth of another.

Thank you and may the Force be with you