What do you mean by courage ? How do you define it? Well , it depends on the perspective you look at it from . I believe-from my experience and understanding of situations – there are two types of courage : the first and essential one the Internal courage and the next one and the less noble one the External Courage . Before I articulate further on this topic of courage I need you to perform a simple task or activity(whatever you call it) .Take a plain paper and pen and note down the things that you ever wanted to do but you are not able to do because of some reasons , simply put , note down all your fears that are inhibiting your personal mastery and the road to freedom and happiness. Go to the next para only if you have completed the above task ,it is ok if you feel the list is not perfect , let it be, just jot down the things that come to your mind instantly.
I believe there is fear in every exciting thing that we do, even a professional speaker who has given 100 seminars is terrified when he gets on to the stage for the next time or even the great Roger Federer is terrified for the next Wimbledon. Fear develops internally whenever we do a thing we love to do or an important task , there lies mastery , as Susan Jeffers beautifully put it “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway” , first acknowledge that there is a fear lurking inside and next just kill it , the fear gets washed away i.e it is always a mental battle between your action and inaction -action kills fear and inaction breeds fear . The reason I explained what fear is and how to defeat it on the face is because it is essential for the understanding of internal and external courage.
Many people get confused between the different connotations of courage and their varied applications . I can better explain this with an aid of an example. Riding bike with 100 + speed on a highway to appease the opposite gender is not courage , it implies the person is not valuing his life properly and it is not internal courage either it is useless external courage .Smoking a cigar in front of everybody is not courage it is just external courage again and the list goes on .Take risks “in life” not “with life” .
Some of the important things/acts that require internal courage :
- Asking for what you truly want (to whomever it may be)
- Being Honest with yourself (the most difficult one)
- Following your passion
- Being “out and out dissatisfied” with the status-quo
- To Quit the job who you hate
- Standing out from the crowd
- Delayed Gratification to achieve a higher purpose
- Believing in your self and intuitions
- To do what you love.
- To achieve financial freedom
- To have self discipline
- To exude confidence
- To control temper ..et cetra
All the above things require courage , true internal courage to win the inner battle with fear and to come out victorious
It doesn’t mean external courage is not required , external courage is ‘sometimes’ a by-product of pure internal courage, it is a manifestation of internal courage working inside you . So from next time don’t worry about the external one and concentrate more on developing the “True Courage”
– Raviteja Visakoti