Being brave, my topic today. At first sounds obvious and simple, but is not necessarily always as it first seems.
“If you always put a limit on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” – Bruce Lee.
You can be tough, strong, opinionated, and loud. You can disagree with others around you. You can pick fights. You can be aggressive. You can be domineering. You can be the person who always goes after what you want. You can take charge. You can say what you want while standing on a pedestal so that everyone can hear you. You can think and believe wholeheartedly that you possess the power.
None of this necessarily makes you brave.
It was Mufasa who wisely told young Simba in the Lion King that “I’m only brave when I have to be. Being brave doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble.”
The dictionary defines brave as “possessing or exhibiting courage or courageous endurance” and another states “the quality or state of having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty : the quality or state of being brave.”
Bravery isn’t something you necessarily seek out. It is not always something we plan. Sometimes, it will appear when you least expect it. The good news is researchers have found that bravery is a skill, and like all skills it can be learned, strengthened and mastered with repeated practice.
What It Means To Be Brave:
“Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” – Mary Tyler Moore.
Whether in the personal or professional realm, being brave means knowing what you stand for and showing up for it. Being in it for the long haul, the marathon, putting one foot in front of the other, whether you feel like it or not. Being willing to be uncomfortable, maybe even awkward or wrong. Saying yes and no. And acting with intention and integrity.
You build the muscle of “brave” by being brave. Day after day after day.
Bravery is part of your character as well as being visible in your behaviour. It is facing the world when it feels like the world is against you.
Putting Someone Else’s Needs Ahead of Your Own:
“Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.” – Aristotle.
It is so easy to be self-absorbed and selfish. It may be the easiest thing in the world to care only for yourself and your own needs. Bravery is not easy. It is anything but easy. When given a choice between what you want and what someone else needs, bravery is often the latter. Brave people put often others ahead of themselves, ranging from loved ones to complete strangers and even those in which you don’t particularly like.
Living with integrity and having strong ethics and morals in life are extra dimensions of this point, and will help you and others greatly.
Fighting the Good Fight:
“Being brave means to know something is scary, difficult, and dangerous, and doing it anyway, because the possibility of winning the fight is worth the chance of losing it.” – Emilie Autumn.
It doesn’t make sense to fight the world and fight everyone all the time because you don’t agree with something or because you are not getting your way. If you are going to take a stand, take a stand when it makes sense, when it is for the greater good and/or because you feel in your heart of hearts that you are fighting on the side of what is right. Not because of your pride or ego, but because what you are fighting for is right. Albert Einstein is the one who said, “Intelligent people ignore.” Choose your battles and choose them wisely. Being able to start a fight in an empty house is not going to serve you well, choosing when and how to best stand up for what you believe in, is something we’ll come on to shortly….
Trying Again:
“Being brave means knowing that when you fail, you don’t fail forever.” – Lana Del Rey.
We all experience disappointments. In life, sometimes we get let down. We make mistakes, because, after all, it is human to make an error. Things don’t always go the way we want them to or the way we plan, but we have to keep going. There are some things that don’t turn out the way you want, but you move on and try again. When we don’t get scared or become hardened from failure, but rather attempt to conquer, then we are brave.
Here are a couple of excellent articles to really help you with this point:
a) How To Learn From Failure.
b) How to Bounce Back From Being Knocked Down.
Speak Your Mind, Even When No One Else Will:
“Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” – Maya Angelou.
It is easy to say what you think people want you to say. It is easy keep your thoughts to yourself because you are not sure if others will agree. On the other hand, it is easy to speak up and say whatever you want because you are trying to get your way or perhaps you want to make someone else look or feel bad. It’s brave when you say things that you know no one else would say or when no one else will agree because it is what you feel is right or perhaps it is what really needs to be said. When you speak your mind because your heart tells you to, that is brave.
Read this article for more on this: Stand Up For What You Believe In.
As a side note – if you want to see me speaking up for something I believe in strongly, the visit and subscribe to my YouTube channel, and see how I speak out against pseudoscience, myth and misconception that proliferates the field of hypnotherapy and hypnosis.
Bravery is Not a Lack of Fear:
“Being brave isn’t the absence of fear. Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it.” – Bear Grylls.
No one is without some kind of fear. Being brave doesn’t mean that you are not afraid. I think you are that much braver when you overcome fear. When you face fear head on and break the “scared” barrier, that is bravery at its finest.
Bravery could be trying to do something when you don’t know what the outcome will be, overcoming the fear of failure. Maybe it is time for you to address some of your long-held fears and decide to do something about them – this is developing bravery, this is also going to lead to a more rewarding and fulfilling experience of life. We live in a world that induces fear and relies upon it – the news, political systems, marketing and advertising all use fear in one way or another to sell you ideas, products, services and more besides. It is tough not to fall prey to it all. Choose ongoing bravery and courage and overcome fear, and become more resilient to it as a result. Think about the aspects of life that give you nightmares and take action anyway.
Real Bravery:
The sad truth is that our brains are wired to discount the cost of inaction, to overestimate the likelihood that things will go wrong and to underestimate ourselves. This is a recipe that makes us averse to being brave. If we adopt a brave mentality, practice being brave like it is a skill and take action each day – those acts of courage will form a foundation to build an incredibly rewarding life and career upon.
Think about stepping out of your comfort zone today, here are some really great articles to help with that:
a) Important Reasons to Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone.
b) 7 Steps To Leave Your Comfort Zone.
c) Self-Hypnosis To Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone.
Make it your intention today, to be brave consciously and then consistently practice acts of courage. Consider what you do each day – rather, consider what you do NOT do each day and choose to be brave and take actions accordingly.
You’ve been brave in many ways and on many occasions in your life. It is in you. Now is the time to let it grow and expand into many more areas of your life with regularity.
Sometimes, being brave is just being yourself. Ignoring all the outside pressures that insist you should be something else, but instead, you choose to proudly be yourself. Read this article for help with that: Why and How To Express Your Individuality and Uniqueness.
Practice living with courage, practice being brave and notice how the muscles grows and your personal and professional life develop as a result. Think of courage and being brave as a habit – practice it every day until it becomes the norm and part of who you are.
“Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.” – Ann Landers.
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