determination

Quiet Courage

/ Scott / 2 Comments

I’m currently reading a great book titled, “Work the System” by Sam Carpenter.  Today I read a section where he talks about quiet courage.  Sam defines quiet courage as, “…unadorned action and it is the opposite of procrastination.  Quiet courage resides deep inside and causes one to buck up and do what needs to be done whether one wants to or not.”

As I read that today it made me think that as we’re out causing something to happen, there are often days where we may not feel like doing what needs to be done.  For example, in the pursuit of good health, there may be days where we just don’t feel like going to the gym.  While striving for a strong healthy marriage, we may not feel like engaging in tough conversations that we need to have.  The list is endless, but the truth is that during the pursuit of whatever we are striving for, we will face times when we just don’t want to do what we know we need to.

I’m curious as to how we can develop quiet courage in our own lives.  What can we do to develop the persistence to push through feelings of “not wanting to”, instead of seeing them as insurmountable obstacles that thwart all efforts at forward progress?  I think one of the best things we can do to build quiet courage in our own lives is to recognize when the feelings of procrastination and lack of motivation are beginning to take hold.  At this point we have a crucial decision.  We can give in to the “I don’t want to” feelings or we can do what needs to be done, in spite of how we feel.

Regardless of the choice we make, we reinforce or build a habit.  If we procrastinate every time these feelings arise, we reinforce the response of procrastination.  On the contrary, if we do what we need to, even when we don’t feel like it, we begin building the muscle of quiet courage.  The more we choose to take positive action regardless of feelings, the stronger this muscle grows.

Commit today to being mindful of the “I-don’t-feel-like-it” feelings when they crop up in life.  When they arise, attack them with the positive, forward-moving action.  Responding in this fashion long term will rapidly build a quiet courage within you.  And when that happens, the “I-don’t-feel-like-it” feelings you encounter will be short lived.

Unwilling to Settle

/ Scott / Leave a comment

Expectations, motivation, excitement, and confidence are high.  You have a plan and are ready to cause something to happen.  Don’t you just love the beginning stages of a new undertaking?

But what happens when the planning stage is over and it’s time to start executing he plan?  This is where challenges start to arise and where the excitement and confidence can begin to wane, as we face uncertainty, doubt, fear, and our own negative self-talk.  Left unchecked, these feelings can begin to cause us to re-evaluate the goals and dreams we have for ourselves, and adjust them down to a level that doesn’t seem as scary and challenging.  The worst case would be that we abandon our dreams completely, and return to our lives as they were, being ever-haunted by regret and the thoughts of…”what if…” or “I wonder if I could have done it”.  Personally, those are thoughts I don’t want to saddle my future self with the burden of carrying.

I’m currently in the process of learning how to do voice overs and will soon begin doing that professionally.  As I look at some of the things I need to do, I can easily get overwhelmed.  Along with that come the familiar feelings of fear, doubt, and the negative self-talk saying that perhaps I should consider backing down, and just go back to doing what I’ve been doing.  When these thoughts come, I immediately remind myself what I don’t want to just settle for what comes along in life, but I choose to chart the course that I want for myself.  I also remind myself that everything I need to do does not have to be completed that day, or even that week.  The goal I’ve set for myself is steady progress on a daily and weekly basis.

The main thing I’ve been doing is visualizing what success looks like.  Doing so causes me to get a feeling of what it would be like to achieve this goal, making it more difficult for me to decide to give up before I even get started.

I’m convinced that the biggest barrier to greatness people face is their willingness to settle for the easy route versus persevering through initial struggles on the road to achieving personal success.  We’re too unwilling to endure struggle, too unwilling to stretch out of our comfort zones for an extended period of time.  I want to flip that thinking around.  Instead of being too unwilling to stretch out of my comfort zone, I choose instead to be unwilling to settle for taking the easy route and whatever happens to come along.

Where have you been settling?  What are you unwilling to settle for any longer?