What does “you have arrived” mean? You have arrived means you stop sabotaging your life by worrying too much to prove your worth. For my work in courage, to know “you’ve already arrived…” means the person lives a “courage-centered” life—it’s intentional, and declared from the heart!
The most critical issue as you embrace this forgotten virtue is to give yourself permission to claim your everyday courage—not the media’s angle of sensational, amazing, tragic or scandalous types of headlines, but the type that allows you to brand your special style. When self-doubt creeps in, ask: “How can I act with courage?” The way to access your courage is to pause and reflect. Ask another question: “How do my scripts confirm my False Self (the incessant chatter of the ego) and bind me in my mind-created fear? For example, “One day I will be a pro/ready/skilled to ….?” Then determine how courage can differentiate you and showcase your talents.
Scripts keep you stuck, so where you are stuck? Until you take time to stop and reflect, to let go of attachments such as consumer gadgets and/or the self-identification to “busyness,” most of us will remain in our StuckThinking™ patterns. Staying stuck in our scripts keeps us doing the same thing over and over. When a host of difficulties comes your way a courageous person refuses to give up in spite of the obstacles. But, what’s the benefit of this energy?
A symbiotic relationship merges when you combine your personal courage and your intention. This says you witness courage at its best—a contagious antidote! Overall, the assessment that I hold is our culture perpetuates pitching courage and fear against each other. This pitching is the egos creation of duality such as good/bad, pretty/ugly, smart/dumb or courage/fear. I always think of the John Wayne quote that epitomizes and enables this dualistic belief and brands courage as bravado: “Courage is being scared to death…and saddling up anyway.” For me, a centered heart has no fear (unless a rattlesnake is looking you in the face or you’re along at night in a parking lot and you sense someone. Someone said, “One cannot discover new oceans until he [she] has courage to lose sight of the shore.”
How will you choose to design your courage to advance in your true work? If you have to work, make it your Truth. In Truth, you will find your passion. With unceasing zeal, declare what I call a “Declaration of Courageous Intention” and use this tool as a compass on your life’s journey. What matters most is that you take positive action, now, to declare your intent.
Sandra Ford Walston is known as The Courage Expert and innovator of StuckThinking™. She is an organizational effectiveness consultant, speaker, internationally published author of bestseller COURAGE, trainer and courage coach. She is certified in the Enneagram and MBTI®. Please visit www.sandrawalston.com.
Sandra Ford Walston, The Courage Expert
Innovator, StuckThinking™
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