Building Courage so I can be Brave Enough to Push to the Other Side of Fear

Today I received this great article in my inbox, from Christine Kane, publisher of “LiveCreative” ezine, musician and creativity consultant. I just had to share it.

I’d been avoiding writing a post for a little while, because every time I sat down to write, all I could think about was FEAR. You’ve heard me talk about my fears a lot…too much lately, I think.

And you’ve been introduced to my pal, “Fearsome Freddie”, so that’s old news…

But courage…courage is a concept that I haven’t talked or written much about. And yet, developing courage has been so much a part of my personal growth and spiritual development.

I have been empowered to develop “the courage to change the things I can” as one of the pillars of my self-improvement inspiration.

This article made me smile. I hope it will do the same for you.
Please comment below, and let me know which one/s of the 52 ways you’re going to try.

52 Ways to Build Your Courage
by Christine Kane

“Excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.” – Aristotle

Courage is a muscle. Just as you wouldn’t go into the gym for the first time and lift a 100-pound dumbbell – you don’t have to begin building courage by running for President.

People often think that courage has to be big. Like sky-diving. Or giving a speech to a stadium.

Those things do require courage, yes. But in some ways, that’s baby courage. It’s obvious courage. I call it Bungee-Jumping Courage.

Bungee-Jumping Courage is convenient because it lets us define ourselves as “not courageous.” When you set the stakes that high, then you never have to approach it. You simply get to say, “Hmm, I must not have courage.”

I’m not letting you get off that easy.

Why?

Because there’s a deeper level of courage. It makes you strong. It makes you fall in love with yourself. It makes you fall in love with your life.

At its core, courage is about strengthening your relationship with yourself.

Here are 52 ways – little and big – to build your courage. Some of them seem completely foolish. But they’re not. They’re just uncomfortable. And that’s the whole point! Success in life is directly related to how uncomfortable you’re willing get. Now, get uncomfortable and go be courageous!

————–

1 – Paint your nails green. (Guys get extra credit for this one!)

2 – Begin to live your life as an “experiment.”

3 – If you’re always spontaneous, plan something in advance and stick with it. If you’re a meticulous planner, do something spontaneous.

4 – Quit your job.

5 – Start a blog.

6 – Take a drawing class.

7 – Learn a new language.

8 – Begin yoga.

9 – Do something tourist-y in your own town.

10 – Get up in the morning after having a bad day yesterday. Encourage yourself to begin again.

11 – Give money away.

12 – Look into people’s eyes when you’re in public – on the street, buying groceries, etc.

13 – Hire someone to do a regular task you can’t stand doing. (i.e., mowing the lawn.)

14 – Play music more. Watch TV less.

15 – Get rid of everything in your home that’s not an Absolute Yes.

16 – Put on a goofy smile and look at other drivers when you stop at lights.

17 – Go vegan.

18 – If you never host parties or dinners – invite friends over for dinner.

19 – Teach a workshop.

20 – Start a mastermind group.

21 – Be bad at something. Do it anyway.

22 – Make requests. Don’t complain.

23 – Join a writer’s group.

24 – Hire a life coach.

25 – In social situations, allow people to talk with you instead of running around the room “networking.”

26 – Worry less. Act more.

27 – Enter a writing contest.

28 – Start your own business.

29 – Ask someone out on a date.

30 – Make a business card for yourself.

31 – Eat at an ethnic restaurant you’ve never considered.

32 – Respond. Don’t react.

33 – Get some music from another culture. Sit down and really listen.

34 – Listen more. Talk less. Especially to your kids.

35 – Take a swing dance class.

36 – Hire a physical trainer.

37 – Start a book club.

38 – Test-drive a luxury car.

39 – End a relationship that drains you or hurts you.

40 – Pray.

41 – Quit smoking.

42 – Take different routes to work each day.

43 – Drive around and get lost on purpose.

44 – Wake up at 5am and write.

45 – Assumptions are the enemy of success. Question them often.

46 – Excuses are the enemy of action. Stop making them.

47 – Admit when you are wrong.

48 – Write a fan letter to someone who’s not famous – a teacher, a grocery store clerk – anyone who delights you or touches you.

49 – Pick one incomplete in your life. (A cluttered garage, for instance.) Tackle it for 15 minutes a day.

50 – Do an open-mic night.

51 – Pay the toll of the person behind you.

52 – Run for President.

——————————————————————————–

Performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane publishes her ‘LiveCreative’ weekly ezine with more than 11,000 subscribers. If you want to be the artist of your life and create authentic and lasting success, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to LiveCreative at http://www.christinekane.com/.

Finding Your Truth thru Relationship 101: Love First

Sunday night is “Live Your Truth” night for me. LYT is a twitter chat f.ree event, #lytchat,  hosted by @elizabethpw. Last night’s conversation centered on “finding your truth”. And the first thought that came to mind was, “I think my truth found me”.

Then I allowed it, explored and expanded it, and now, I nurture it.

How did this come to be?

Love first.

I opened my daily affirmative reading today, in Journey to the Heart, by Melody Beattie, and found this confirmation: (I couldn’t have written it more perfectly)

“Love brings with it the gift of freedom.

Love teaches us to allow the person we love to do as he or she chooses.

It teaches us to encourage the people we love to freely make their own choices,

to seek their own path, to learn their lessons their way in their own time.”

and then:

“Love means each person is free to follow his or her own heart,

seek his or her own path.

If we truly love, our choices will naturally and freely serve that love well.

When we give freedom to another, we really give freedom to ourselves.”

My truth is that when I finally let go and stopped trying to control everyone around me, I was able to do it by honoring and respecting their right to live their truth.  I had to allow them the dignity to make their own choices. What I wanted or expected was no longer relevant.

When I truly accepted love without restraints I became keenly aware of my own truth, shifting forever into living the courageous life of love first.

To learn more about Elizabeth Potts Weinstein and her “Live Your Truth” project, 3 Days to Video and other programs, check her out at http://elizabethpottsweinstein.com/lytchat.

Note to Self: Practice Makes Progress NOT Perfection!

So I today I posted two videos on YouTube. YEAH!

Funny thing is, I thought this was the first time I had posted anything and I sent a note out to the world calling it “Nanette’s first video”.

And it wasn’t. I had actually posted one a few weeks ago, but I’d forgotten. I forgot because when I heard the fuzzy sound quality I got insanely frustrated trying to “fix” it and when, after hours of trying, I couldn’t make it perfect, I just gave up the video project. AND COMPLETELY FORGOT I’D EVEN POSTED IT!

Now, to be fair, I didn’t tell myself lots of ugly, negative self-talk stuff and I didn’t walk away thinking I’d never come back to it or never be able to do it. I did tell myself I would come back to it again when I felt ready.

But, I did get completely derailed for a long period of time AND I forgot how much progress I’d actually made.

Lately, that seems to be happening when my creative process gets interrupted. In this case, I got interrupted by a “glitch” and I spent far too much energy trying to fix something. I was exhausted from pushing so hard.

Worse yet, that all consuming energy of frustration seems to have recorded right over those “saved” creative files in my head making them non-existent. I had to stumble on the product of my work to be reminded that I’d actually done it.

And oh boy, did I feel dumb when I did.

Here’s the best part…the videos I posted today are EXACTLY the same ones I recorded weeks ago. I didn’t change a thing. The last time I tried to upload these two videos there was no sound. Not fuzzy sound. NO SOUND.

I tried all kinds of work-arounds. I called a friend. I sent questions out to forums. I reached out for help (something that’s not easy for me to do…). No answers worked to make the sound play.

Until today. And all I did was open up the files like I’d always done before, and they played!

Are they perfect? Of course not.

What those videos represent is me “Stepping UP” this year.
Yes, I’m scared. Yes, I feel a little foolish (if you watch the videos you’ll see why) and yes, I’ve got a lot to learn.

But practice makes progress.
And celebrating progress, mine and yours, brings great joy into my life.

So, celebrate with me at http://www.youtube.com/user/Wisewellwoman.

I’m stepping up in 2010 — how ’bout you?

From baby steps to stepping up to giant leaps!

What practices do you have in place that help you muster the courage to push out of your comfort zone?

Share them with all of us, here, OK?

And if you need some self-care practice ideas, you can find them in my e-report you can get free right here (on my blog) just by filling in the boxes to the right. (And if you downloaded it already, but never really read it…go read it now and let me know how you progress).

Wishing you well!

Stepping Up to Climb Every Mountain!

A Message of Courage