Courage To Live
Kathy Gates, Professional Life Coach

What does courage mean to you? Do you think of the firefighters who lost their lives in the World Trade Center towers? Do you think of the men and women serving in Afghanistan and Iraq?

What about the courage to admit a mistake? Or the courage to stop someone from hurting you? Or the courage to stand up for what you believe? Or the courage to just be yourself?

Yes, all those things take courage, but all of those things also have something else in common. Do you think any one of those things can be accomplished without feeling some fear? No. There cannot be courage without fear.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment or decision that something else is more important than the fear. Courage is what you do IN SPITE of the fear, in spite of the resistance, in spite of what you want right now.

But you don't have to show the kind of courage that it takes to get on the 6:00 news. You can show courage every day. It takes courage to go against "that's just the way it is."; or "what can I do about it?", or "I've always been this way"; or "They won't let me...".

Courage is deciding not to put your current desires above your desires for the future. Courage is deciding there's something more important.

For me, courage brings to mind the Bible story of David fighting Goliath. In order to get into the Promise Land, David had to fight his giant. Don't you image he had something else he would have rather done that day? Fighting a giant wasn't likely at the top of his list. But he chose not to put his current desire over his true desire.

In order to get into your own personal promise land, you'll have to have courage to stand up to your personal giants too.

It takes courage to end an unhealthy relationship. It takes courage to quit an unfulfilling job. It takes courage to say No to someone who is using you. It takes courage to set up a new spending plan. It takes courage to say Yes to your dreams when it means putting your self-esteem out there for the whole world to see (well, that's relative, but you know what I mean). It takes courage to reorganize your time so that you spend it on what is most meaningful to you. It takes courage to ask for what you need and want in your life. It takes courage to be honest.

Courage doesn't mean that you don't recognize the difficulty of the task. Not at all. It does mean that you are willing to do it anyway, to push yourself out of the comfort zone, to give it a try.

Courage is standing up to whatever mental- emotional-physical "Giant" is in your life.

Resolve to live in such a way that courage, not fear, directs your life. Resolve to determine your own worth, not let someone else decide it for you. Resolve to stop working hard to build someone else's dreams.

It's time to find the courage to take your future into your own hands.

Professional Life Coach Kathy helps people who are burned out, stressed out, and fed up to find the courage to get back in touch with the foundations of their life. www.reallifecoach.com