Now I know you’ve probably seen a movie where someone was brave.
What is it about a brave character that we love? Well, we love the brave hero who saves the princess. We love the brave heroine who protects her children from danger.
But what we really admire about the brave character is his/her ability to do the impossible against all odds.
I always wanted to be brave, and thought I couldn’t until I got into self-development.
Maybe what you want to do, requires you to push yourself in ways you never imagined, until now.
Bravery is about acknowledging your current situation and what ideas and beliefs you have held onto, and telling yourself, it stops now.
You see, there is always now. It doesn’t matter what background you come from. It doesn’t matter that you are lacking confidence, or are experiencing anxiety, or whatever issue you are facing at the moment.
Bravery is about facing all of this, and deciding to do something else.
Why you already have the seeds of bravery in you
Bravery is not exclusively for the stars in movies.
It is a characteristic that you have this moment if you wish. By just having a vision for your life and what you want to achieve, is the start you need for your bravery to manifest.
A number of things are needed that lead to bravery. You want to do something, but it is scary.
You then decide to do something, but it’s still risky. However, your desire to want to do so continues to increase. You want it badly.
Then you become brave and do what needs to be done.
You see all that needed to happen before the bravery? Do you realise all the unsavoury things you felt and experienced were actually required, in order for you to demonstrate your bravery?
Some type of pain is needed in order for bravery to arise. Bravery cannot exist without pain.
The steps leading to bravery
Let’s now go through the specific steps involved that lead to bravery and I will share tips on how you can approach and deal with each one.
Step 1: Current situation
At this point you’ve just noticed that something isn’t quite right with your world. Usually it means you’re experiencing some kind of pain. Current suffering isn’t to be resisted. It needn’t make you frustrated.
It is a sign of where you with a current aspect in your life. It is all it is. There is no need to give it anymore power or meaning than that. To do so, just creates a barrier for you to take action.
Step 2: You want to do something but it seems scary
The key word here is it seems. There is a lot of difference between you doing something in real life, to your thoughts and imaginations about the activity you want to carry out.
Chances are at this stage, you might be feeling anxious about taking the action you want to. This too isn’t to be opposed.
Step 3: Channelling the pain to take action
What you experience now can be used as momentum or a catapult to take action. I know this part is difficult.
You might be having worrying thoughts about how you can’t do it. You may be telling yourself all of the reasons why “it just isn’t me”.
Let me tell you one thing from direct experience. One of the greatest things I’ve ever done is to learn to ignore my mind!
Our minds are usually programmed to turn away from what we want to do and come up with excuses as to why we “can’t do it” and why we “shouldn’t do it”.
As you now understand this is what will happen on your road to bravery, you can use it as springboard tool to take the action you want.
Step 4: Access and use a state that will help you
I love creating new states that can help us achieve what we want. That’s why I’ve included this step here. Here you can actually make use of previous times when you did something brave to help.
When did you last do something brave?
It doesn’t have to be something major. If it was a recent event, then fine. However, it needn’t have to be. It can be from a long while back as well.
Perhaps you bravely expressed your view in a meeting at work once, and you knew this was a brave act on your part.
The purpose of doing this is to get your mind-body connected with a time when you were previously brave, so you can appreciate that you were brave once and can be so again.
And if you can’t remember a time when you were brave, then imagine what it would be like vividly if you were!
Step 5: Take action
Here is the point where you just take action. You do what you need to.
You become the brave lion or lioness.
You become the brave movie star.
You do these things in your own way. For instance:
You speak up first in that meeting.
You ask that girl out on a date.
You make that cold call.
You go for your dream job.
You get married.
You do whatever your own unique activity to you is.
And Lastly
The world wants you to be brave.
We want you to be brave.
We want to see you succeed.
We want you to inspire. Because when you become brave and succeed, you inspire us to do the same.
Hiten Vyas is a personal development coach from the UK. He is passionate about helping people increase their confidence and reduce their anxiety. You can find out more about him at his website: http://www.hitenvyas.com
