The Courage To Master Your Fears

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear."--Mark Twain

I looked at the definition of courage in the dictionary. And found an interesting definition. 'Courage: The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc. without fear or bravery.'

I'm not sure I buy into that one. To me, courage is doing what needs to be done in spite of fear. I think bravery, for example, in particular is a way of thinking about our lives such that we are doing what we need to do even though we have fear about doing it.

Genuinely courageous and brave people don't lack fear. They are acting in spite of the fear. I define courage and bravery as doing what needs to be done in spite of fear. If it didn't have the element of fear, why would we need the courage to do it?

Stop for a minute and think of a time when you should have taken some action but you didn't. And I want you to remember why you didn't act. Think about this. Why didn't you act?

Think of another time when you needed to act but didn't. Why didn't you take the action you needed to that time?

Now consider the similarities between these two events. You are going to find upon consideration that there is one common denominator, at least one, and maybe more, and that commonality is that there was probably some kind of fear associated with the incident.

The big question is, what would have happened if you had acted despite your fear? Work through these two events in your mind and think about how it could have gone the other way. What might the outcome have been if you had pushed through the fear? And what is the absolute worst thing that could have resulted if things didn't go your way?

Let's go back to the first event that you thought of and let's just say that whatever this event was, you chose either not to act or not to act as fully as you might have.

Might you have had success? What's the absolute worst thing that would have happened had things not gone the way you hoped for? How bad could it have been? Would you have been thrown out? Would you have been cursed at? Would you have been told no?

My next question. . . could you have lived with that outcome? I'd wager that your answer is yes. You could have absolutely lived with that worst case scenario.

Oscar Wilde once said, "One's real life is often the life that one does not lead." What is the real life that you're not living because of a lack of courage? Conversely, in what ways have you acted despite your fear that have changed your life for the better?

Article Source: http://www.rightbiz.com

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.

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