Ryan Holiday is a terrific author. I have read almost all of his books (Ego is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic and Stillness is the Key (my fav)). His latest, “Courage is Calling” is worth a week of blog posts. I hope you will find these as wonderful (and helpful) as I have. Ryan’s books are easy reads – small but mighty.
On Sunday I try to focus in on how faith coincides with key insights that help us build better lives. Courage is a hot topic in this arena, and even those who weren’t raised around the church are usually familiar with the David and Goliath story. The epic battlefield scene that called on the least likely warrior (a young boy) to lead his tribe to victory in defeating the town giant. Sometimes life’s giants call us to overcome our fears with a strong dose of courage. How we might do that is worth some dialogue.
Lucky for us, there are countless people throughout history who have displayed crazy bravery. From Nelson Mandela, to Malala, to Teddy Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks or perhaps your own parents or grandparents. The stories are worth learning and relearning in my opinion. In his writing, Holiday spends quite a bit of time focused on Florence Nightingale. I didn’t know just what an amazing human she was, and what a beautiful example of every day courage she demonstrated. I’m planning to spend more time on her in Wednesday’s blog. Today, I am focusing on perhaps the key to conquering our fears…
“We must make courage a habit,” is what was my greatest takeaway when you strip it all down. There are endless examples, from athletes who didn’t expect to hit the game-winning goal, to the lawyer who stood in front of the mirror reciting their rebuttal over and over, to the teenager who walked the halls before school started to get a bit more comfortable with that feelings of entering their next stage of life.
He continues, “How can you trust that you will step forward when the stakes are high, when you regularly don’t do that even when the stakes are low? So, we must test ourselves.” That is soooo good to me! The idea of how we navigate our own everyday lives by practicing the good we hope to produce seems fundamental, yet complicated. The decisions we make even when thinking about helping others with our resources comes to mind. Sometimes we are too afraid of not having enough, that we don’t give generously, even though we know we could meet a need of our friend or co-worker. Ruminating on the idea of practicing... testing ourselves doing everyday good is worthy of our thinking and of our efforts.
As we think through the idea of testing on the big things, It is clear that we must start with small things. The adage, “Do one thing each day that scares you,” is a step in that direction. I believe we must always be pushing ourselves to the other side of our comfort zone.
I recently finished up my scuba diving certification and it was way out of my comfort zone. Honestly, that surprised me, because I’ve always been an avid swimmer, but the idea of carrying around an oxygen tank on your back and going 30 feet under seems daunting. Nevertheless, I made it a personal goal to do hard things, especially as I get older. The instructor almost didn’t get me to finish because I was quite adamant that I just didn’t want to, and frankly didn’t see the point during that moment of near panic. The bottom line is that I, for some reason, was too scared. He ultimately was successful by getting me to just “go on a little swim” over and over until I eventually built up the courage to keep going so I could pass the certification. It may seem like an insignificant example but I assure you, this is how I and others have done almost everything that was scary to them: by continuing to move forward, one small step at a time.
Regardless of if it’s deciding to push yourself physically, to become emotionally uncomfortable for a bit while you address a hard conversation, or if it’s something spectacular, it all starts by practice – forward progress in the direction you are headed. David did this during his daily practice as a shepherd boy, and most likely so did everyone else that has encountered a courageous moment.
My faith gives me courage, and my friends do as well. My boys give me this unbelievable desire to stay strong and be courageous in all that I do. I hope that you will feel called to be courageous and in one way or another, be inspired to practice courage daily. Sometimes just getting through the day should be considered practice. Sometimes we have to think through what areas of our lives have we really not prepared ourselves really well? What stress or pain points need confronted with a bit of Rosa Park’s bravado? I have a short list and imagine you may as well.
As I close out today’s post, I leave you with my son’s favorite Bible verse. It’s a good one and he picked this in 3rd grade, proving it is never too early. “Be on your guard. stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” (1 Corinthians 16:13).
I think I’ll go try to do that this week! Anyone else?
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