#12 Growth - Embracing Bravery and Courage: Stepping Beyond Comfort Zones

In this episode, we delve into the often-misunderstood concepts of bravery and courage. While these terms might evoke images of heroic deeds, they encompass much more than that. Join us as we explore the true essence of bravery and courage and how they apply to our daily lives, decisions, and personal growth. Discover the distinction between the two and how acknowledging fear while choosing to act anyway is a mark of true courage. We celebrate the small victories of stepping out of our comfort zones and facing fears, emphasizing that embracing discomfort leads to profound personal growth. Whether it's entrepreneurial endeavors or navigating relationships, both bravery and courage are essential qualities that drive us forward. Tune in to learn how to apply these qualities in your own life and embrace the transformative power of bravery and courage.

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Today, we delve into a topic that resonates with many: bravery and courage. If you've ever been told you're brave but struggle to see it in yourself, this post is for you. We'll explore the difference between bravery and courage, their relevance in various aspects of life, and how stepping outside your comfort zone can lead to incredible growth.

Defining Bravery and Courage:

Bravery isn't solely about heroic feats; it's the quality of facing danger, fear, or difficulty head-on. True bravery involves showing mental and moral strength in challenging situations. In contrast, courage goes deeper. It's not just about setting fear aside; courage is acknowledging fear's presence and consciously deciding to act despite it. Both bravery and courage have their place, and understanding the difference is key.

Unveiling Personal Bravery:

Often, we downplay our own acts of bravery, thinking they don't measure up to historical examples. But consider the times you've chosen to push through discomfort or uncertainty. Those moments where you've chosen to step out of your comfort zone, even in seemingly small ways, are instances of bravery and courage. Let's celebrate these victories!

Facing Fear and Embracing Change:

Our brains are wired for safety and comfort, often leading us to avoid challenges. But staying in our comfort zones can hinder personal growth and transformation. It's important to recognize when fear is keeping us stagnant and to choose to step beyond it. Remember, feeling fear doesn't mean you're doing something wrong; it means you're facing a chance to be brave and courageous.

Applying Bravery in Everyday Life:

From entrepreneurship to relationships, bravery and courage play a significant role. Embracing new opportunities, taking on challenges, and making tough decisions require both qualities. Whether it's saying yes to a new venture, setting boundaries, or even addressing personal growth, remember that courage is a choice you make every day.

As we navigate life's twists and turns, let's reframe our understanding of bravery and courage. It's not just about monumental acts; it's about stepping beyond our comfort zones, facing our fears, and embracing growth. Celebrate the moments where you've chosen to be brave, and remember that courage is a conscious decision to move forward, even in the face of uncertainty. So, where will you choose to be brave today?

Transcription:

00:01

All right, we are back with the podcast today. And you'll see if you're watching on YouTube, I'm back in my house for a hot minute, but I'm actually going to talk about bravery today and courage. And this is something that

00:22

I have...

00:26

I get told, I've been told by people that like, oh, you're brave. And I'm like, brave? I don't feel brave. What? And so I've actually got to like raising that awareness around that of like actually thinking about like, am I brave? What does that look like to be brave? When I think about bravery, probably that childhood opinion of bravery, right? Like,

00:54

I'm not a soldier going into battle. I'm not, I don't know, that would be something I would consider bravery. I'm not standing up as one of the first women who were fighting for women to have voting rights or any of those things. To me, some of those things are bravery, right? The Underground Railroad back in the day with slavery and stuff.

01:23

and the bravery that that took, that to me is bravery. And that's what I, that was the, what I had. And so I was like, I haven't done anything brave. But if you know my story, and if you, maybe you've known me for a long time, or maybe you're fairly new here, when I actually dug into what bravery is and what it takes to have courage, I was like, oh, I guess I do use that a lot.

01:54

And there's actually been a lot of instances in my life where I've got to choose to be brave, but I wouldn't, it wasn't a conscious thing necessarily. It was a, yeah, you're gonna do this. Like you'll be fine. Those kinds of things. So the definition of bravery, courageous behavior or character.

02:21

perhaps I'll get a medal for bravery. And that's, like I said, that's what I thought, you know, like a soldier going into battle or, you know, a policeman doing really, you know, brave things and dealing with situations. And so that was my, that was kind of what I had. Now, the true, I was Googling this and

02:50

That's why I haven't pulled up my phone and my notes. But the true meaning of bravery, in quotes, you know, in quotes we'll say the true meaning. The quality or state of having or showing a mental or moral strength to face danger, fear or difficulty. The quality or state of being brave, courage, showing bravery under fire.

03:13

And then also, what's the difference between bravery and courage? And this was really interesting to me is bravery is more spontaneous and involves setting fear aside. Courage is about having fear, being mindful of its risks and making the conscious decision to do something anyways. Both bravery and courage have times when they're appropriate. And I thought that was really interesting.

03:43

And then what, there was another one here that I wanted to share was, what is bravery? To be brave is to face your challenges, threats or difficulties. It involves valuing a goal or conviction and acting upon it, whether popular or not. A central element involves facing rather than avoiding fears. And I love that. I was reading something the other day and that's where this kind of came up was, and this is Melissa Wilkins wrote this.

04:13

Being brave doesn't feel like bravery. It feels silly or embarrassing or uncomfortable or confusing or pointless or terrifying. That doesn't mean that you're doing it wrong. That's just part, it's just part of the deal. You feel the feeling and do it anyway because brave isn't a feeling, brave is a choice. So when we think about in my network marketing business, in being an entrepreneur, in life, there's

04:41

instances and places that pop up, big things, small things, with our personal finances, where we get to choose to be brave and courageous. And I'd say right now, in our personal finances, and with inflation in the world, and things going on and moving pieces, you might be feeling some of that fear or difficulty or threats or challenges, right? And we get to choose

05:11

Just like I talk about with that on a mindset level, we get to choose to be a victor or a victim. We get to choose to be brave and have courage. Now, the definition courage, bravery is more spontaneous involved setting aside fear. Courage is about having fear and being mindful of its risks and making the conscious decision to do something anyways. That is really interesting. I actually wanna, I thought I had this pulled up.

05:41

I want to pull up the meaning of courage now. So the meaning of courage, the ability to do something that frightens one. She called on her courage to face the ordeal, strengthen the face of pain or grief. Versus.

06:00

If we go back, bravery.

06:06

courageous behavior or character perhaps. Yeah, so they're very, very similar, I would say. Now the spontaneous versus a little bit more premeditated, if you want to call it that, or awareness around, well this is going to be scary, this is going to be difficult, but I'm going to do it. It's like that conscious choice to step into that. Whereas that bravery thing is like, oh, I feel the fear. Am I gonna stop? Is this gonna stop me? No, I'm gonna push through it and do it. Is how I kind of see that and how I see that in my own life. There's...

06:35

There's been times or choices where, for instance, when I went back to college after working for a couple of years, now I was homeschooled my entire childhood. I had never written an exam in my life. My first semester I had six full-time classes. It was a lot of exams. And we did just fine, just for the record. But I purposely said yes to going back to college. And I took courage.

07:05

to show up and to do it and to walk through that. Now, bravery to me is more, I had this moment actually last year when I was going to work shutdowns, away go work in industrial work. It was, that's a whole other story for a different day of why I was doing that. But it was really, really good for my brain to take a break from all this amazingness. We need space and that'll be a different episode. But I was driving.

07:33

at night and it was a six hour drive from where I lived. And it was someplace I'd never been before. It was February, it was cold, it was dark. It's me and my kitty in my truck with a truckload of stuff and I think I'm gonna be gone for four to six weeks. I know I'm going to a hotel. I've never been to the town before. I know there's not a whole lot there. I don't know what the job is gonna be like. I don't know what the people I'm gonna be working with are like.

08:00

there's all these factors, you know, and you're on this like dark windy road in the mountains at night, and there's snow and it's cold and all those things, right? And there was this moment where I almost got there. And there was this moment where, like I was feeling a lot of nervousness, anxiousness, like all those things, but I wasn't really recognizing it. It's like, oh, this is an adventure. I very much work really hard at stepping into life with bravery and courage.

08:30

But the more I become actually consciously aware that I have those things, I can identify faster where I get to like lean on that. And when you have the awareness of like, okay, I'm stepping into bravery right now, or I'm using like, I'm going to be courageous and do this, even though it feels scary. Whereas, so when I was driving, I was like, why do I feel like this? Like, what's wrong? And like, there was this moment where I almost turned around because it was, but I wasn't.

08:59

actually allowing myself to feel the fear, it was just like, well, you just feel weird or it just, this feels like a lot or like, I don't know. It just felt, it was scary, quite frankly, but I wasn't allowing myself to feel that. I was thinking it was other things or like I wasn't allowing myself to even feel that. But then once I was like, oh.

09:22

There was this moment where it's like, why do I wanna turn around right now? I've already driven five and a half hours down the road. I'm almost there. And so there was that moment of like, oh, you're actually, that's fear you're feeling right now. And that's okay to feel the fear. Now what are you gonna do about it? That was the question. And so then by stepping into that and going, yeah, okay, I'm gonna keep going.

09:51

Like, obviously I'm going to my destination. I've already said yes to the job. I've committed to saying yes to the job tomorrow. I'm here. And I want to do this. And even if it wasn't something that I had to show up because I told somebody I was gonna be at, well, I'm not gonna turn around after five and a half hours driving when I'm 30 minutes away from my destination, right? I'm safe. And I had to do that check-in with myself of, okay, I'm safe. Like the roads weren't bad. It wasn't a case of like, I was doing anything un...

10:21

necessarily or you know extreme dangerous that I was putting my life on the line. And so I had to say I'm safe, you're safe, all is well, we can keep going, it's good, which is that's one of my favorite lines from a coach I had a long time ago. I'm safe, God's got me, I get to step into bravery.

10:47

encourage and show up and do things and finish driving the 30 minutes and and employ that courage. Now I'm actually recording this today and this popped up for me because I am planning another fun trip.

11:03

by myself and there's part of me that keeps wanting to back out on doing this and coming up with all the excuses or reasons why I couldn't or shouldn't or maybe it's not the right time or all those things. And I got to actually like ask myself what was really going on here because I'm like, it has nothing to do with the time or any of those things, like the timing of it or time of year, whatever. And it was like,

11:33

It was that bravery piece. It's that courage, having courage to say, yeah. And that's, so those are some of my stories. I share all of this because right now in the world, I see so many people waiting and sitting in fear, not recognizing it. They think they're being smart. They're like, well, we'll just wait for a better time. We'll just, we're just gonna hold off a little bit. They're keeping themselves safe.

12:03

Outward, we are wired, our brains are wired to keep us safe, to avoid pain, and seek comfort. We don't, so driving down a wintry road in the dark, going on a trip to new places where you've been, feels uncomfortable, it's unfamiliar, all of those pieces, right?

12:32

you know, choosing to spend your money wisely, starting another business, adding another stream of income.

12:41

We want to avoid pain, seat comfort.

12:48

That's what our brain is telling us all the time. So when we think about that in our lives, but comfort is where dreams go to die. It's like, it's complacency. And you end up in this, that hamster wheel, and your life just is the same. And so when we talked about dreaming big and identity shifts, getting to choose

13:17

The identity shift of I do hard things, I get to do hard things, I want to do hard things, I challenge myself.

13:30

feels really good and we want to have those feelings. There's so much purpose and connection and drive and so many good things that come from the other side of facing that fear. So whether you're looking at, maybe you're looking at signing up for a course, whether it's around your personal finances and money mindset, whether you're thinking about reaching out to me about adding another stream of income or doing a course or...

14:00

I have a course coming out, actually possibly even before this is posted or live, this episode on for new entrepreneurs and business owners or maybe you've had a business owner or you've had a business for a while and but it's you're kind of in the weeds and you need to recenter yourself and you're like, well, should I, shouldn't I, do I need to take action on this? And I'm going to talk about action and doing in another episode.

14:31

but asking yourself why. Like are you seeking to do something because it's comfort?

14:41

How can you seek comfort in the challenge, in the fear, in being brave on the other side of that? So worth it. All right, so those are some of the things. And so I get to walk this out. So if you follow me on social media, you'll probably see that sooner than later, I get to do unfamiliar things. And honestly, this podcast, the courses I have coming out, all of those things, my network marketing business, you know,

15:11

If you're listening and you have a network marketing business or you have your own businesses, whatever those things are, reaching out to people, asking if they would be interested in checking out what you have to offer, offering it to them, right? It's no different than if you're a server in a restaurant and you're coming around asking them if they want a refill on their water or their coffee or whatever that is, right? But we get caught up in our heads. So we're moving that drama, but it does take courage.

15:41

And if you have past experiences, your brain is going to look for evidence to keep you safe. So if you've had things happen in the past, or if you know of situations, it's going to look for information that's going to keep you safe. It wants to keep you in that bubble. It wants to keep you on that hamster wheel. So how can you break out of that and go, it's okay brain. I got this. I feel.

16:11

I'm using my intuition. I feel that God has placed this in front of me, whatever those things are for you.

16:19

Now I'm gonna step into bravery and courage, let's go. And then in those split second decisions, those like kind of random opportunities to be able to say yes to bravery is huge. And sometimes bravery means saying no to something and putting boundaries in place. I get that's all, yeah, that's a whole nother topic, but I'll leave it at that. So where in your life do you get to step into courage and bravery?

16:49

Where have you maybe been resisting that because you you see where you want to stay safe Where it's comfortable and familiar Do you have an area where you're like, ah, I? Feel like it's the right the right decision, but I don't want to Where's that place in your life where you're like, ah, I know that's the right decision. I Can I know I've been sitting in comfort?

17:19

and ease, and it's been good and it's been fun, and that doesn't mean that there's not seasons of that, but it's time to step into challenging myself again. Whether it's with eating well or going to the gym or with a relationship, maybe that means putting boundaries around a relationship. Maybe that means ending a relationship. Maybe that means saying we need to work on this because this isn't enough. I'm not okay with this.

17:48

I have needs that I don't feel like are being met, and I would love to work through this with you. Not just throwing in the towel all the time. But maybe that is ending a relationship. And that's something that I would say, there's an area that I didn't choose courage and bravery around is in a past relationship where I knew in my heart

18:18

I knew that it was done a long time before it actually ended.

18:29

And in the end, I wasn't even the one to end it. But I knew. And I just, quite frankly, it was familiar and comfortable and it felt really scary on the other side of that. And so I stayed in that and I kept telling myself, well, maybe it'll get better. And also maybe if I just have a little bit more time, like I don't wanna make those decisions before, you know, like I need to get some stuff figured out.

18:56

And also hopefully maybe it'll get better. Like that, I kept telling myself those two things.

19:02

which led to more pain and quite frankly was really not fair to either party in the relationship.

19:13

So where do you get to choose bravery?

19:17

in whatever that looks like. And maybe, maybe it's not that. Maybe your bravery is in choosing to stay in that relationship and choosing, choosing because love is not a feeling, choosing to love that person and choosing that person every day.

19:37

And that takes a lot of courage and bravery.

19:43

But where do you see yourself stepping into courage and bravery and celebrate that? Seriously, people do not celebrate that stuff enough. Um, and where do you want to step into more courage and bravery? All right. I hope this has been helpful. I dropped a lot of like personal stuff in this episode. That was fun. Um, we will see you all again soon.