Most people would say that courage is a result of confidence. I disagree. Let me explain.
As toddlers, when we started to walk, we had an abundance of courage. We weren’t worried about failure. We just tried! And we fell. A lot. We certainly had confidence in our ability to learn. But as babies, we had absolutely no confidence that we would have immediate success the very first time we tried to stand up. Courage is all we had.
And yet, as adults, we have come to believe that confidence in success is what actually builds courage.
Most of us have some experience where our confidence has given us courage. When we feel that we cannot fail, we are more inclined to take action, accept challenges and rise to new levels of accomplishment. Our confidence in an expected result gives us courage.
But what happens when we don’t have that confidence? Then what?
What do we do when we lack confidence? When the result isn’t guaranteed? When we feel that it’s entirely possible that we could fail, embarrass ourselves, or experience a significant loss?
For most of us, in such a situation we avoid action. We change course. We over-prepare. We make up excuses. We fabricate reasons that seem pretty logical. We focus on developing our skills, experience, and talents, and we believe that by doing so, our confidence will build and we’ll then have the courage to take action. We’ll do just about anything to avoid taking that risky step forward. We rely on our confidence to have the courage.
Except that it doesn’t work that way.
Confidence and courage are intractably linked. They play together, struggle together, and win and lose together.
Confidence comes from courage! And courage comes from confidence.
When we don’t have the benefit of our confidence, we have to lean into our courage. We have to find it in ourselves to take action anyway. Tapping into our courage is the only way that we can develop any real confidence. Our confidence grows because we have come through challenging experiences, for better or for worse. It’s from the learnings in these new experiences that our confidence grows and expands.
Courage and Confidence.
Confidence and courage.
Sometimes, our confidence leads the charge and our courage isn’t needed as the driving force.
However, sometimes our courage must be strong to carry us, reinforcing our wavering confidence.
Either way, success is on the other side. The more action we take, the more confidence and courage we experience.
So when you find yourself feeling stuck or plateaued, ask yourself the following questions:
- In your business, where do you need to tap into your confidence to magnify your results?
- And where do you need to rely on your courage to create the future you want?
As always, we encourage you to build your business on your own terms, and experience Success, Differently!
- Michèle