When I think about courage, my mind naturally goes to extraordinary acts—a firefighter entering a burning building, a soldier in battle, or someone risking their safety to save another person. Those are easy to recognize as courage.
But I’ve started wondering about the courage we don’t recognize.
Sometimes courage looks like walking into a room when we’re uncomfortable being there. Sometimes it’s admitting we were wrong, asking for help, saying no, starting over, or having a conversation we’ve been avoiding. Those actions may seem ordinary to someone else, but that doesn’t mean they’re ordinary to us.
In this episode of Imagine the Possibilities, I explore an idea I’ve come to believe. Courage isn’t determined by action. It’s determined by what the action requires of us.
I also share how an experience in a public-speaking class taught me that something requiring tremendous courage today may become comfortable through experience tomorrow.
Fear, experience, judgment, and our values may all have something to say when we face a difficult decision. But ultimately, the decision belongs to us.
Maybe courage has been part of our lives far more often than we’ve realized.