5 Effective Ways to Boost Your Courage

A lot of times, it’s not like we don’t have what we want or worth fighting for, we’re just scared. Scared of uncertainty, failures, embarrassment, and what others will think of us. Most times, we’re just scared to start. It is something I can relate to, I’m a writer, remember? The fear of writing on a blank sheet or screen. It can be scary. Not can, it is. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t let our fears keep us from doing what we want to do.

Last week, I did a self-evaluation, mostly for my blog as it is something I take responsibility for. In the evaluation process, I wrote down my strengths, weaknesses, core values, accomplishments, goals, and feedback in my newsletter, and you can read it here and subscribe so you don’t miss more. I became aware of my goals and dreams, and while being aware, I got scared. I guess that is why this blog post came next. I realize I don’t have much courage to do them.

Looking at my blog, remembering where it all started, I realized I’ve come far. I was scared of starting a blog. I think it was the feeling of incompetence that was eating me up, but here I am, with 28 blog posts and 10 weeks of newsletters. Funny.

Here are some of the ways I find the courage to do the things I want to do, and things I don’t want to do.

1. Go out of your comfort zone, slowly.

This one helped me. I mean, it’s not my comfort zone to write how I feel and post it online, especially when I don’t feel so good. This is basically how I started blogging. If you are going to go out of your comfort zone, do it slowly. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself. It took me a poem on elephant journal, 13 articles on medium, and a lot of moral support to finally create my blog.

2. Be okay with failing.

Seriously, you have to be. As much as failing sounds like a bad experience, it is not. It is merely an experience that can cause changes depending on how you respond to it. It can bring about improvement or discouragement, a start of something, or the end of it. Make your choice.

3. Just start.

“You can, you should and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” – Stephen King

You need to start working on that project, writing that book, start that course, attend that class. You need to start to find the courage to go on, to find a reason to go on, to have something to look forward to. Start to know how much you want that thing to happen and watch the magic happen.

4. Start with your strengths.

If you are searching for courage, look for it in things you are good at. Search for it in things you find easy to do, things you don’t have to work too hard to get. Let’s say you have a presentation to make, pick a topic you’re familiar with, or do it in the way you are best at. If you win in your strengths, you’ll find courage easily in things other things.

5. Take a rest.

Don’t push yourself so hard. You might need rest more than you need courage, that’s why it is important to put this into consideration. Take a rest to find out what could be stopping you from stepping up.

So far, these have proven effective to me. Maybe I am courageous, we are all, but it can slip our minds from time to time. Courage is not something we are born with. Even if it is, we start to lose some of it while growing up. Being scared doesn’t make us cowards, it makes us human, but don’t let it stop you.

“Courage is being the only one who knows how terrified you are.” – John Wayne