What is courage?
Courage, as people say, is the grace under pressure. It is the ability to stand even after a great fall. It is the overcoming of adversities regardless of the odds. And most of the time, it is the belief that everything is sensible even if the circumstance is beyond our understanding. It can be physical bravery, when you are able to withstand physical pain or moral courage when you have the guts to do the right thing in the face of antagonism. It’s like being trapped between a rock and a hard place and still able to break out from it. As Mark Twain put it in plain words, ‘Courage is not the absence of fear. It is acting in spite of it.’What is Confidence?It is how you hold yourself in any given situation. It’s about thinking about yourself and feeling good about it. It’s the acceptance of consequences that may arise from a situation, may it be good or bad, and not dwelling too much about it. It’s finding accomplishment instead of drowning in the possibility of failure. But do not mistake being confident to thinking that you are better than others and acting all high and mighty. That’s arrogance, not confidence.Are Courage and Confidence Parallel or Paradoxical?Courage is the assurance that you can win despite your fear. Confidence is the courage to think that you are capable of doing something. Some people believe that courage is more of an emotional thing while confidence is more of an intellectual thing. Others believe that to have one is to have another. Defining courage and confidence is like giving meaning to something that is too complex and too simple at the same time. But whatever it is that you believe in, it is important to have bravery and self-assurance You can’t just feel them in a heartbeat, so how do you go from cowering and running away to being cool, calm and collected?How to achieve courage and confidence?The first step to achieve bravery and confidence is doing a reality check. What is it that’s holding you back? What is it that makes you fearful? Why do you feel incompetent upon given situation? Identify your weaknesses and strengths. If you know your strengths, utilize it. Exploit it! Start with small things first and try to accomplish it. Even a tiny bit of fulfilment will boost your morale and help you explore bigger things. When it comes to your weakness, ever heard of desensitization? It is a technique used in overcoming fears. To put it simply, it’s like exposing yourself to your fear bit by bit, until you’re no longer susceptible to it. The more exposure, the more you've become used to it.Self-consciousness can also deter you from having courage and confidence. If you keep finding fault in yourself, the more you beat down your self- assurance and slowly extinguishing the hidden bravery in you, because you are your worst critic.
Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful
Mark Victor Hansen.
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Uhanan Mimi
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