Courage is also known as bravery. It is the ability to face fear, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation. It is called ‘physical courage’ while facing physical challenges such as pain and hardship and ‘moral courage’ while enduring shame and discouragement.

The opposite of courage is fear. Courage makes your fear disappear. Courage is an important quality or character that you should have in order to face life’s many challenges.

Is it possible for all of us to have courage?

Well, yes. Courage also means overcoming fears. In that sense we all can learn to overcome most of our fears. You should develop courage in yourself first so that you can instill courage in others – your children, your family, your spouse and your staff at work. If you do not know what courage is and you do not have it, how can you possibly teach others?

How do you overcome fears?

Learn to curb your fears. Realize that everyone is afraid of something. Courage does not mean an absence of fear. Courage is control over your fear. A courageous person acts in spite of his fear to move forward.

Face your fears. Fears disappear the minute you stare at them. Your fear takes over you when you get scared and back away from a fearful situation. The fear looms over you and becomes more powerful. The only way you can develop courage is to be aware of your fear and confront it consciously and continuously. Face each fear-inducing situation as a challenge and your fears become weaker while you grow stronger. 

Desensitize yourself to your fears. There is a technique called ‘systematic desensitization’ which is used to treat phobias and other extreme or erroneous fears based on principles of behavior modification. In this technique, you do a fearful act over and over again until it has no more power over you. Your courage and confidence grow more and more as you repeat the action each time. Finally your fear simply disappears once for all.

Your action plan in your efforts to overcome fear include the following steps:

Define what courage is in your mind. It can be learning to drive, staying alone at home, going for a walk alone, swimming, etc. People are afraid of so many different things and what is simple to you may not be so for the another person.

Identify your fears. Know and understand your fears first.

Write down a list of all your fears. Be honest with yourself and do not be ashamed of admitting your fear of even the silliest thing in life.
Once your list is done, write down specific actions that you can take in order to overcome those fears.

Prioritize your tasks.

Take action today.

Yes, that's right. I said start today.

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