4 Simple Steps To Cultivate Courage

Which wolf are you feeding? Fear? Or Courage?

Each and every day, we're all faced with opportunities to be courageous.

Courage takes many forms, and for each of us courage is something that will look a little bit different. Why? We all have our own strengths and short falls. Whether that's from our upbringing, social spheres, parenting (or lack there of), our school influence, peers, there are so many variables!

However, whether you believe you're full of courage or not - you're right. We all have the ability within us to cultivate an attitude of courage. Regardless of where you're starting.

Maybe you're making a hard talk feel worse than it is? Which is resulting in you being a nervous wreck - only to find out it was actually a pleasant conversation.

Maybe you're struggling to speak up during meetings at work or within passion projects.

Perhaps you're struggling to get up the nerve to speak to the man/woman you're looking at for a partner? Perhaps you're scared to ask for that promotion or raise?
We all struggle in areas. It's easy to look at this (non)comprehensive list and think "booyah, I got this, that's all easy to me," yet what's easy for one person may not be easy for another.

Here's how to build courage in 4 simple steps:

Step 1: Take a breath. That's right, a full, deep breath using all of your lungs: bottom, chest, upper. You can hold for a brief 3-5 seconds at the top if you need to, however, it's not required. You can simply let the breath roll out.

Step 2: Think about your thinking. Are these thoughts serving me? Are these emotions serving me? Are they warranted? Acknowledge what's going on within your full physiology, then let it go. Allow yourself the space to wind down and come back to earth, acknowledging your thoughts and emotions while understanding: you are not your emotions.

Step 3: Visualize the success. Our mind doesn't understand the difference between imagination and reality. When we're spun up, it's easy to wind things up so much that we have emotional hand grenades going off everywhere. As our heart rate slows from taking a breath and we allow our thoughts to pass, we can start feeling clarity enter our being. We may not be our emotions, yet we become what we focus on or think about.

The more we obsess over what's not working or what we don't want, the more we allow it to come into our lives. Focusing on what you DO want gives permission for the blessings to enter your life. All while pushing away what you don't want.

Step 4: Have faith and take action. Knowing that our mind thinks our visualizations are reality, you'll find that as you practice these methods that what's pictured often isn't far from reality. It takes time, consistency, discipline, and a burning desire to do right by you, giving yourself the patience and reps to develop skills in these tools.

It's simple, not easy. The world gives us an abundance of opportunities daily to help us with this. During our workouts, or even before/after. During our daily commutes or errand runs. Family, peers, co-workers, team sports.

Seriously, the world is both your playground and training ground. You can hunt out and find situations to develop courage. Use the training to hone your courage muscle. This is powerful, do you know why? Because we can't always control our challenges in life. By using the world as our playground and seeking opportunities to train relentlessly we're positioning ourselves to meet the big battles of life without fear.

Attitude is everything. Train often, train well, and when life demands more than you believe you may be capable of, fall back to your training. We don't rise to the challenges of life, we fall to the level of our training. Training is life, provided you have the drive and ambition to constantly seek new peaks.

Closing Notes

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