COURAGE

To speak ill of the world
Needs courage,
But fortunately or unfortunately
Everybody has that courage.
To love the world
As one's own,
Very own,
Needs courage.
Unfortunately, most of us are wanting
In that courage.
The courage of the heart,
The courage of the soul
We badly need,
And not the courage
Of the unruly,
Aggressive,
Impure,
Demanding vital.
                                    - Sri Chinmoy (1944-2007)
 

You have the courage within you to overcome any obstacle.

As Sri Chinmoy suggests, this is the courage of the heart and soul. With workers at every income level and every sector of the economy looking at a  "jobless recovery" to the current recession,  obstacles seem to exist at every turn. Fear can drive us to accept work and conditions we do not want, and may eventually leave us feeling stuck, undervalued, overworked and underlooked.

Being stuck is not necessarily a bad thing, if it makes you uncomfortable with your current situation.  If you begin to see staying in the same place is not going to move you in a direction you want to go in your life or your career, you may start believing that the unknown you fear is better than the place you are. Obstacles begin to look more like exciting challenges. 

Courage is the quality that provides the motivation and fortitude to overcome any obstacle. It resides within the core of every human being. In fact, the root word is "couer," the French word for "heart."  Looking at your life and taking courageous action to change it takes a lot of heart!

When you move beyond an intellectual evaluation about the actions your are taking and begin committing to them because they produce the highest good for both yourself and others, you are being courageous.  When you decide that you need to change your career or your career direction, and you begin that process, you are being courageous. When you run up against barriers but keep pushing on because of a deep commitment, you are being courageous. 

I am not suggesting this is easy.  There are countless stories out there about people who survived physical catastrophes against all odds.  Actor Christopher Reeve, best known for his role as Superman, is paralyzed and cannot breathe without the help of a respirator after breaking his neck in a riding accident in Culpeper, VA in May 1995.  He went on to live an incredibly productive life from a wheelchair, and before he died wrote Still Me, a book chronicling his story.  He could have become bitter but instead he got active in promoting spinal cord injury research.  The bigger the barriers, the more courage is required to overcome them. 

Be willing to reach deep into yourself for the heart to change.  And people will look at you and what you've done and say, "Wow.  That was courageous."

If you want to explore areas of your life where you feel the need to begin taking courageous action, please contact me to set up a 30-45 minute complementary coaching session by visiting www.TransitioningYourLife.com.  

And remember the old saying:  Courage is feeling the fear and doing it anyway.