It Takes Courage

We have all heard narratives of wars and battles throughout history ranging from the large wrangles between countries to a smaller quarrel with our own mind. General Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “What matters in a fight is not the size of the dog but the size of the fight in the dog.” This is courage.
Let’s simplify it a bit. What is courage? It is the ability to do something even when there is risk involved. It’s when we are able to take on challenges and be bold enough to reach realistic goals that were once just a dream. There are a lot of different ways someone can express courageousness, but the three most important to me are battling your fears, following your heart, and letting go of the old.
Having the courage to battle your fears sounds pretty straight forward — be brave. But, how do you harness that energy to be brave? Facing my fears is something I have struggled with a lot throughout my life, and I still do, but my curiosity and desire to know the unknown help to kindle that fire to find answers. Time to get personal; something I am still working on overcoming is my fear of not being enough. I am sure a lot of you feel the same way, if not, then maybe a little. Social media and pop culture has already raised everyone’s expectations of other people to another level, but what about the expectations we put on ourselves?
For me, the first step is acknowledging that I am afraid of not doing enough. Then, I break it down to understand what that fear means. Am I too harsh on myself in what I need to accomplish? Who I need to be? It’s not easy to overcome something you’re scared of, and I have definitely fallen back numerous times, but finding that middle ground where you’re able to control that fear and not be afraid to fail is courage. Being able to fall — hard — and then get back up again is all that takes to create a simple change. Not feeling like you’re enough breaks you down so much until you start second-guessing everything you’re doing. Try to challenge yourself to say, “no, you’re doing okay.” It takes time, but even the greatest battles turn to dust when you act rather than react.
Now that we faced some fears, what about having the courage to follow your heart? This is one that I saw even the bravest hearts struggle with. Coming from a background where you’re pressured to follow certain careers, specific faith, and a set path, you start losing pieces of yourself. Someone once told me, “it’s your career, your life, and you should be the only person who decides to take action to pursue it.” Yes, I understand there are many factors where it’s hard to speak up and follow your heart whether it be family, money, or something else. I was pursuing business technology and every day I felt like an orange ball of light in a grey world. It wasn’t making me happy and I didn’t see myself doing it every day for the rest of my life. So, like I always do, I made a pros and cons list. Realizing there was only one pro, I knew I needed to say something or do something to find a new path.
We tend to forget we only have one life, and no one knows how many years, months or weeks we have in this one life. It was hard knowing I didn’t want to pursue business tech and not knowing what was the right path for me, but having the courage to tell that to myself, and then people I cared a lot about felt like having a weight lift off my shoulders. After overcoming many challenges, career shifts, and building who I was as a person, I found a spark with advertising. I knew what I was going into — that a lot of people would see me differently for pursuing it, but passion is what drives courage. When passion for something is lost, courage fizzles away. When following your heart, you start building the courage to take risks, challenging yourself and do extraordinary things leading to success.
I’ve mentioned taking risks and challenging yourself takes courage, but how does one do that exactly? By letting go. What’s stopping you from facing your fears, or even following your heart? That feeling/thought that’s stopping you is what needs to be let go in order to move forward. Anais Nin, a French-Cuban American author said, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” For me, I was always one to participate in anything and everything to not only learn and grow but to help me figure out what I liked and didn’t. When applying to fulltime jobs, I could have either taken the option to accept the offer of the full-time salaried programmatic analyst position, doing something I didn’t absolutely love or an hourly-wage internship at my dream company. The risk with the internship was that there was no guarantee of a full-time offer, but I knew it was the only way I’d understand the industry I wanted to be in. So, I channeled my courage and took that risk. I declined multiple full-time offers for an internship post-grad. The only way to really expand your horizons and discover new oceans is leaving the shore. Take a leap and let go of the old, because old ways never open new doors. Now, I am doing something I love, at a company I love and admire.
Life changes constantly, so change with it; stability will only keep you stagnant. Write your goals down, but also have the courage to pursue them. It’s okay to feel hopeless for a moment, but it’s also okay to jump. A net will always be there to catch you.
