Recently we had a sudden change in our family circumstances, with our eldest daughter moving back to Singapore. As a mother, my heart was torn between joy and sadness over the situation but as a fellow human being I was amazed at the courage my daughter was able to exhibit in resetting her life.
And it made me think, is courage something that is innate in all of us and it just needs the right circumstances to draw it out? Kind of like the fight or flight reaction in the face of ‘danger’. Or is it something that we need to cultivate? We have tried with our children to always encourage them to move forward and take action despite any obstacles or challenges if it is something they really want. But action takes courage.
So what is it that holds us back from taking action? Often it is fear – fear of the unknown, fear of pain, fear of failure and the list goes on… So what resonates most for me when I think about courage is that courage is “taking action in spite of fear”.
For me, I really have to find courage when I go outside my comfort zone. One of my coaches, Sarah Singer says “Your comfort zone is drawn as a box, yet in reality is more like a big bubble that surrounds you, going with you wherever you go. But mentally, developmentally and metaphorically, it’s definitely a box that holds all the things you are used to, comfortable with, unconsciously competent at doing and generally unfazed by.” And every time I want to step outside that box (by taking some sort of action) boy do I feel that fear – fear of the unknown, fear of pain, fear of failure. Of course the most recent time I drastically stepped out of my comfort zone and experienced all that fear was when when I climbed Mt Kilimanjaro, having never ever camped before let alone stepped foot in the wilderness and hiked for 7 days!?! [You can read about my journey here.]
But stepping out of your comfort zone doesn’t always have to be so drastic. It can be as simple as having that conversation you’ve avoided. And in my experience the rewards are always worth acting in spite of that fear.
Now the rewards aren’t always what I expect, they don’t always come in the form of success. But they definitely do come in the form of growth. The growth of my comfort zone.
What’s amazing to me, is that by having the courage to take action and go outside my comfort zone means I keep expanding that box. And by expanding that box the realm of what I can achieve and what I believe I can achieve expands. This allows me to reach a higher level of performance and do more with my life. I honestly think the thought of staying in a box that never grows and expands can be more scary. That’s why it makes so much sense that Courage is one of the critical factors of high performance!*
* High Performance is the result of heightened and sustained levels of: clarity, energy, courage, productivity and influence. www.highperformanceinstitute.com
Are you stepping outside your comfort zone? Do you feel you are speaking up for yourself and your ideas in life? Do you feel you express your true self and what you want enough? If you had more courage, what would you start doing right now?
Take the High Performance Quiz to find out more.
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