The courage factor

Cheri Ruskus //May 22, 2012//

The courage factor

Cheri Ruskus //May 22, 2012//

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”      – Anais Nin

When was the last time you gathered every ounce of courage within you to do something that scared you throughout every fiber of your body, mind and spirit? Maybe it was to do something like skydiving or, if you are an entrepreneur, the courage factor may have been focused around taking your business to new heights that you had never previously ventured towards before. 

Think about when you have had the best successes in your life both personally and in business…something tells me that courage was bubbling up like a rocket inside of you to take you where you needed to go.  When change is eminent and (note the underline under the word and) we embrace the vision of what we want to be, do or see, we can find ourselves with the tenacity to throw our comfort zone to the sidelines.  And with that dream killing comfort zone out of the way we can find ourselves achieving great things.  

Albert Einstein summed up courage this way, “Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form.”

What could change in your business today if you could find the tenacity and courage to make it happen?  What have you been putting off for a future tomorrow that you could in fact make happen today with just an extra dose of courage?  What if you grabbed your fears and threw them into the back seat as you drive your business towards the great successes you know are in front of you.   Key elements are to have a roadmap (a plan), enough gas (support and resources) and you will be amazed at what you can do. 

During a recent visit to the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, I had a wake-up call as to what courage is all about.  The easiest thing would have been to clean up the debris, fill in the holes in the ground, put our tail between our legs and retreat to comfort zone.  Would that have honored those who died?  Would that have in fact served anyone or moved our country forward from the disaster?  The leadership that brought together the beautiful memorial and what is now being called the Freedom Tower at the 9/11 site was an act of courage that now in turn returns courage to so many American’s. 

The verb “encourage” means to give somebody hope or confidence, to urge somebody to do something, to foster something. This is perhaps the greatest reason why we need to surround ourselves with those people who also can see our visions as they support us towards a greater tomorrow – allowing us to enjoy the process along the way.  This can be a friend, colleague, coach, mentor or spouse.  Stop and take your own inventory of where you gather your courage that allows you to do things before you that will move the needle from empty to full.  So get out there and be daring!  Take your tenacity to make the fearful leap forward towards your success!