Doing The Damn Thing Anyway
Using fear to find bravery
Being brave is being scared. This is a concept that has been echoed by everyone from movie stars, to authors, to philosophers. Sometimes we get lost in the manifestation of bravery that is steely-eyed, aggressive, and seemingly fearless. Throwing one’s self into the drink without care or concern of drowning. However, what if bravery was soft? Sensitive? Thoughtful? And yes, birthed from the pit of fear?
Running into a burning building to save someone is certainly valiant, but so is the person opening up to another. Sharing their feelings, doubts, and anxieties. One does not have to wear a suit of armor and fight the big bad guy in order to be considered brave. That is merely one type, and it takes all kinds to truly paint a picture of what it means to go forward gallantly.
Radical vulnerability is where I get my bravery inspiration from. Give me someone showing up to the world honestly, and authentically, not undeterred by being told to do the opposite, but attempting to stand in their stance to be so. Accepting yourself and the way you are — that is brave too. It is scary to wear your warts and strip down to the naked flesh of who you really are, but there is also a power in that. In a society that constantly fools us into wanting to be other people, rejecting that notion, and strolling down the…
