Courage is Mastery of Fear; NOT the absence of it

"Courage is mastery of fear; not the absence of it."

I saw a movie recently and in the movie in the background was that quote on a sticky note. I quickly wrote it down because it was definitely something I was going to sit with and think about and probably need to be reminded.

Fear is something we all experience at various points in our lives, some experience it perhaps more than others.  For me personally I get fearful of many things; I get fearful of hard conversations with people, I experience fear in my heart sometimes before I try something new, I get fearful that I won't succeed in what I set out to do, I get fearful at times that I might get hurt physically, or emotionally in the various aspects of my day with the various people I may encounter.  I get fearful of what people will think when I share stuff like this where it's real, raw and vulnerable.

And yet, something I've learned and I'm still learning on a regular basis, it's ok to be fearful--as long as that fear doesn't dictate the actions or lack of actions. I've gotten laughed at for it, but very often I make myself do things that scare me or are uncomfortable simply for the discipline of it, to make sure that fear isn't dictating my life.

"Perfect Love casts out fear."  I think about that a lot. That ties into everything we do throughout our days, throughout our lives.  When I work with my training clients often times the hardest part is getting started; they experience a lot of fear; what if people laugh or make fun of them? What if they can't reach their goals? What if it's too hard? What if their body can't do it? What if they don't have what it takes mentally or physically?  Many times my job is to remind them that they CAN, that they DO have what it takes, that they WILL be successful. Sure it will take time; as all good things do, but they WILL master it.

Courage is mastery of fear. It takes courage to begin and persevere in something. It takes courage to walk through those fearful fires and not let oneself be consumed by them. It takes courage to begin something that is a new playing field. It takes courage to walk through life and not let it destroy us.

After my knee injury, one of the scariest things was going back to Jiu Jitsu and repeating the move I got hurt doing. It was scary playing sports again, working out full force...And sometimes I would be so surprised when fear would randomly show up; like going white water rafting and being put in a position that made me question the strength of my knee's recovery.

Or going cliff jumping and trusting that I could land ok and my knee would be just fine.  But it was being put in those situations that left me with the choice to either choose courage and decide what place that fear would play in my life or let fear conquer and paralyze me.

My challenge today for all of us is to do something today that scares us, that challenges, that makes us step out of our comfort zone. Something that gives us an opportunity to master the fear, not let it master us. 

How are you going to do that today?  Get it!! And make it an amazing day!!

Live Love~
Maria