Finding the Courage Within You

When my publisher asked me a few years ago what I wanted the topic of my next book to be, I told him that I wanted to write a book about courage and confidence. So many people have come into my seminars and trainings over the last 15 years seeking qualities that somehow eluded them. I thought I knew something about courage and that I had something to share.

Little did I know how much I had to learn. Faced with a grave cancer diagnosis and a startling health challenge, I learned the true meaning of the words courage and confidence and I realized that when you have courage, you have everything.

I know now that the only real gift I can give you is the gift of my experience. So I do not want to try to provide you with some new information for your mind that will make you feel smarter or better. What I do want to do is support you today in beginning the journey of transformation, of moving from your head to your heart, of surrendering some old thought, belief, or righteous position that is firmly and impeccably placed between you and that next greatest expression of yourself.

I invite you to imagine how your life would be transformed today if you had courage to tell the truth, the courage to say no, the courage to ask for what you want, the courage to set a boundary, the courage to pursue your dreams, the courage to live your most extraordinary life.

Well, here’s the great news. You possess that courage already. It is already inside of you, just waiting to be accessed and activated. This courage is a holy gift, your birthright, just waiting to be claimed.

At the heart of each of my books and every lecture and training I lead, I support people to find the courage to choose faith over fear – faith in themselves, faith in others, and faith in life. So I urge you to not play small, to not play it safe, to not heed the voice of fear that says, “Be careful, or “It’s too late.”

Practice courage by speaking your truth even when you’re scared. Practice seeing life exactly as it is, without self-deception. Practice finding the gifts in every experience.

And most importantly, practice humility, which is really the practice of getting out of your own way, surrendering disempowering perceptions and beliefs, and allowing yourself to be quiet and listen beyond your ego, beyond your intellect. I encourage you to practice being arrogant enough to say what you want and humble enough to know you have no idea how to get there.

I promise you that it is so much harder to live an unexpressed life than to bask in your full potential. Nobody is born to a little life. There is not one birth that doesn’t have tremendous value to the whole. Life is offering you the grace and flow of miracles unendingly. It is your job to open your heart to them. You deserve it.