How to Become Courageous

How Can I Become Courageous?

    ESTHER is one of the few ladies I know that posses impressive driving skills and believe me I should know because I once worked as a driver. Today, watching her drive is awesomely pleasing, though there are times I feel like grabbing the steering from her; I’m sure some of the guys know what I mean. Anyway, this is the part you have to promise not to tell her.
I remember asking her how she was able to attain such level of driving skill. She didn’t start out being all that perfect. She recounted one frightening experience when se almost vowed never to drive again. This is what happened; one day, she was cruising around town with her friends with the euphoria of being able to drive (she was the first amongst her friends); she was suddenly faced with an oncoming speeding trailer. You know one of those 16 wheelers; I call them ‘King of the road’. She went on to explain how she could think of was to how she could escape from the car. She said, “I was so scared tat I lost control of the car and almost packed inside the gutter if not for the culvert”. It was so funny but for world peace I tried not to laugh out loud. Now that particular experience redefined driving for her. She concluded that driving was a dangerous act which is likely to shorten human life so, “No more driving” she concluded. But she went on to overcome that fear and even James Bond will be proud to have her as one of his stunt car derivers now.


What am I driving at? That everybody is courageous and we exhibit this everyday to the whole world in the ‘seemingly’ trivial things we do. The truth is there was a time, we were afraid of doing those things, but because we have now mastered them and gotten used to doing them we easily forget that it took some courage for us to do those things the first time ever. In other words, just by living our lives, we summon courage from within us every day and gradually lose our fear to the extent that such things become second nature to us.

Could you possibly remember that:



• The first time you tried to walk, it took some courage.


• The first day you attended Nursery / primary school or boarding house and your parents left you with your teachers, you had to be courageous. Well for some of us that courage took sometime to come but it eventually did.


• Like my wife, you had to summon courage and dare to drive for the first time.


• It took serious courage to jump into the water and expect to float when you were learning how to swim.


• But for courage, you would never have been able to sit in front of a panel to attend an interview talk less of speaking to a large crowd.


• You have to summon all the courage within you to propose to your wife and you dared to be courageous to accept your husbands proposal when you weren’t sure of where he would eventually lead you in life.


• When you were going to write that exam, it was courage that spurred you on.


• Goodness! That baby you decided to have took all the courage in the world.


• You wouldn’t have ever boarded that plane if not for courage.


• That 100-meter race was a test of your courage.


I am sure that because you have mastered all these, you wouldn’t know that there are some people who still dread the idea of doing some of those things


Courage is necessary when you become afraid to act in a particular manner, the action of which would probably lead to a desirable outcome. The point is, everyone is actually afraid of one thing or the other so courage is not the absence of fear, it is action in the face of fear. In some cases, courage is when you are the only one that knows you are afraid.

So How to Become as Courageous as a Lion?

 

1. Information

In most cases what you know about a situation or thing is the greatest determinant of either courage or fear. For example, I used to be afraid of snakes but after sometime I started studying them by reading books and watching documentaries and suddenly the fear is almost gone not because snakes are no longer deadly but because I now know how to behave around them.

2. Responsibility

You need to realize that all growth requires change and the truth is change is scary but nobody has ever won a race without setting out from the starting block. However, this will be risky because you could get injured by falling down or knocked down by other runners but when you realize that you are actually the only one tat can achieve this goal for yourself only then will you set out. As they say, “if it is to be, then it’s up to me”

 

3. Action

The shortest distance between your dreams and their realization is action. In fact, it is the only route. Courage is a verb (a word that connotes action). The only reason you and the world around you will have to call you courageous is when your action speaks louder tan your words.

So the ball is now in your court and what you do about it will determine if you will swim with ‘Sharks’ successfully.

 

Stay on top.