June 1, 2009Outside the Lines – Your big choice: courage or fear?
Find Your Great Work Seattle workshop, Sunday June 14th
We’re rapidly approaching the midpoint of the year … how’s it been going for you so far?
I suspect you’ve been working a little too hard, fretting a little too much, feeling a little too overwhelmed at times. (Or maybe I’m just projecting.)
If you’d like the second half of the year to have more focus, more support and – and here’s the bottom line – more work that’s meaningful and that makes a difference, then this workshop will be for you.
We’ve got ten places left. Come and grab one of them.
(Can’t make Seattle? That’s sad … but no problem. Pick up your own copy of Find Your Great Work here.
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“Courage is one step ahead of fear.” – Coleman Young
When I was growing up, one of my favourite books was on Richard the Lion Heart, one of the kings of England. (You may have come across him as the always-absent King in Robin Hood.)
Nowadays, with a little more sophisticated understanding of world affairs, I suspect he wasn’t all that was noble and mighty in a war general and a king. But I did love his name. “Coeur de Lion.” It just seemed to sum up all that I wanted to be. Brave. Bold. Courageous.
As I’ve spent more time championing the Great Work movement, I’ve come to realize you can reduce to essence of doing more Great Work to just two things.
The first is focus. Knowing what you stand for. Knowing where the opportunity for Great Work lies for you.
And the second is courage. That is, the willingness to actually do that Great Work, knowing that it’s never the easiest path to take.
Here are three things I’ve learned about courage.
- 1. It’s an act of the mind
“Courage is almost always a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.” -Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Even though the etymology of the word harks back to the Latin word for “heart”, the truth is that the battle to be courageous first gets played out in your mind.
On the one hand you have that little voice saying “play it safe, don’t be foolish, don’t step away from what you know.”
And on the other, you have the call to something a little bigger, a little different, a little unknown.
Notice the chatter. Rather than rushing through, linger a little at these crossroads. If this is a discussion, then it means you’ll have a choice.
Who’s winning the debate? Courage? Or fear?
- 2. It’s an act of the body
“Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.” -Eddie Rickenbacher
A courageous act isn’t necessarily a grand thing. It doesn’t necessarily involve fireworks and marching bands and unfurled banner against the sky.
But it does involve action. A small step.
It might be a step towards something, the beginning of a Great Work project, a Yes.
it might be a step away from something, a breaking of a unproductive pattern, a No.
But it’s a step.
When your mind is log-jammed, sometimes the easiest way to break things up is just to get moving.
- 3. It’s a fine line
“Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. “-Arthur Somers Roche
If the choice we face – and we face this in a thousand different ways every day – is between courage and fear, then it’s a delicate balance that can tip either way.
Just as if you let fear hold sway, it eventually cuts a deep channel (and Roche’s metaphor is actually a good description of the neuroscience behind the way we think), so to courage can cut its own path over time.
You will of course occasionally tip to fear. But practice one, or ten, or a hundred small even invisible acts of courage a day, and you tip the balance inexorably to your favour.
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Six practical strategies to find your courage
“A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
How much of your talent is being lost to the world for the want of a little courage?
The truth is, everyone courage fails them from time to time. That pesky inner critic gremlin-y voice in your head says “What are you doing? Are you crazy? Stop that!” And you do, you dial it down and play it small.
But as various people have said, it’s not how many times you get knocked down that matters it’s how many times you get back up. It’s just that sometimes, it can feel difficult to pick yourself back up once again.
So I’ve written an ebook with six practical strategies for when your courage temporarily leaves you and you’d like to get it back.
And it’s just $11.
You can pick your copy of Be Courageous here
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Free teleclass with The Coach Exchange, Tuesday, June 9th
On Tuesday the 9th at 12 noon EST, I’ll be holding a teleclass sponsored by The Coach Exchange.
TCE is a gathering place for coaches to find and offer support to develop, grow and promote their practices.
It’s free to join (there’s a premier membership level too), and it’s a genuinely great place for coaches to find community.
They’re even offering ways to attend the ICF and CAM conference at TCE’s guest – so check it out, sign up, and join us on the teleclass.
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Five reasons to listen to the Great Work Interviews
The interviews are pretty damn fantastic, if I say so myself. My cunning strategy? Find really interesting people and get them to talk about Great Work. Simple yet brilliant. Five reasons you should be listening:
1. They’re free.
2. You get to see under the hood of famous people (David Allen, Marshall Goldsmith), senior leaders (CLO of General Mills, VP of OD at GSK), social innovators, authors … just a whole bunch of fab folk.
3. You’ll hear some practical strategies combined with some personal stories about how to let Great Work flourish in your organization.
4. You can listen to them on the web, or download them as an MP3.
5. And oh yes – they’re free.
