If you have ever struggled to define your needs or stand up for yourself, you know how important being courageous is. Here are the best tips on how to be more courageous during challenging times.
We have heard stories about the importance of courage all our lives.
During childhood, courage is described as superheroes taking up and defeating the bad guys to save the world. Gradually, as we grow up, being courageous becomes synonymous with valiant heroes who fight war, bring social revolutions, and dedicate their lives to noble causes.
However, while these stories of bravery are inspiring, they are also extraordinarily inaccessible and make us feel like courage is something only heroes or great humans are capable of. We are never taught that courage is not a goal; it’s a habit you can imbibe daily.
So, even if you aren’t fighting actual wars, climbing mountains, and much more, you can learn how to be more courageous. Courage is a vital part of all our lives and is one of the most important ingredients of a healthy and happy life.
Now, developing courage is imperative, but how do you do it? How do you become more courageous and brave in your daily life?
Well, we have got you covered. In this blog post, we will provide eight actionable and accessible tips on how to be more courageous in life. Let’s dive in!
But, Wait, What is Courage?
Courage feels inaccessible to us because we never really understand what courage is in the first place. We equate it to heroic bravery or grand gestures while forgetting that courage is not a quest but a virtue.
Having courage means being capable of doing the right thing even when it’s difficult and the odds are stacked against you. Courageous people follow their hearts and never put their values on the line.
Learning how to be more courageous does not mean eradicating fear from your life. Fear is a part of your regular life. Having courage means taking action and making progress even when the fear of the unknown threatens to freeze you and stunt your growth. It’s knowing full well how hard and complicated something is yet doing it anyway.
While bravery is more spontaneous and in the moment, courage comes from a planned space. Courageous people do not just jump into things. They have carefully thought through the repercussions of their actions. For instance, courage is in the child who stands up to defy a bully harassing another child, knowing he can get hurt, too. It’s someone recording instances of police brutality while being aware of how dangerous it can get for them.
This is what courage truly is.
These people had an understanding of the debilitating consequences of their actions. They could have just ignored what was happening and moved ahead. Yet, they chose to take action in the face of adversity. And that’s what courage is.
What Is The Importance Of Courage?
Being courageous has multiple benefits for you in life. It allows you to take risks, manage difficult situations, and accomplish greater things in life.
Here are some benefits of learning how to be more courageous:
1. Courage allows you to accept your fears for what they are.
People usually deal with their fears in two ways. They either run from it or blow it out of proportion. But when you learn how to be more brave in life, you acknowledge the existence of your fears without letting them overwhelm you to the point of no action.
It allows you to consider your fear and take steps toward mitigating it while being fully committed to whatever you are doing.
2. Courageous people never stop growing.
Learning how to be brave when you are scared or pushed out of your comfort zone gives you the power to take calculated risks and make constant progress.
Courage pushes you to venture into previously uncharted territory and try new things. This way, you never stop learning and growing.
3. You understand who you are as a person, and therefore, outside perspectives don’t bother you.
When you learn how to be more courageous in life, you accept the most truthful and unadulterated version of yourself. You develop more self-awareness and understand more about yourself than ever before.
And when you learn to accept the good and bad parts of yourself, outside criticism and rejection don’t deter you. You become more confident in your abilities and can better analyze your situation.
8 Tips On How To Be More Courageous In Life?
If you’ve ever asked yourself, ‘How can I be more courageous?’ and struggled to find practical answers, here’s the perfect place for you to get started.
Let’s dive into the most actionable and practical tips on how to become more courageous in life:
1. Understand what fear is (and what it isn’t).
A large part of learning how to become more brave and courageous is understanding your fears for what they are and aren’t.
Reasonable fear and stress are helpful when your safety is at risk, and you must focus on minimizing the harm. For instance, if you are standing in the middle of a busy road, being scared will get you to start moving. Similarly, if you’re scared right before a presentation, it might mean that you need a bit more preparation.
However, unreasonable fear obstructs your ability to live your life fully. If you react to seemingly normal situations or new opportunities with fear, you are going to lose out on a lot in life.
2. Be authentic and truthful to yourself.
Authenticity is one of the most important aspects of learning how to become more brave. It means accepting yourself as you are. And mind you, this doesn’t just include the good parts; it means accepting and cherishing the not-so-good ones as well.
When you learn how to be more courageous, you also learn how to accept constructive criticism without getting defensive.
3. Develop and maintain a healthy perspective.
Often, people assume that courage is something that you’re born with. And even though research by Peter Muris and team confirms that some people can have a greater tendency to showcase courage, it does not mean that the rest of us can’t develop it in life.
Therefore, maintaining a healthy and realistic perspective toward things is a great first step in how to become more courageous in life.
4. Never let any excuse turn into your identity.
As we mentioned in the previous point, perspective is a critical thing.
So, you need to be careful about how you think and talk about yourself. If you constantly say ‘I am a fearful person,” “I am weak,” and stuff on these lines – they’ll soon define you. These labels will start controlling your life before you even know it.
So, if you need to learn how to be brave when you are scared, always remember that while it’s okay to be vulnerable, never let these labels become a part of your identity.
5. Recognize when it’s the right time to seek help.
Being courageous does not mean doing everything by yourself. It’s, in fact, realizing that you need support and assistance, whether in the form of regular encouragement or professional help.
You don’t need to go through something terrible just to prove your strength. Asking for help is the bravest thing you can do.
6. Confront your fears head-on.
If you want to learn how to be brave when you are scared, the only way is to face your fears. The thing with fears is that the only way outside is through them. One of the best ways to cope with your fears is to expose yourself to them repeatedly.
As per research, repeated exposure to low levels of psychological fears can go a long way in helping people deal with them. So, if you are afraid of public speaking, getting on the stage is the best way ahead for you.
7. Create a full inventory of examples of courage for the hard days.
While you might have heard about gratitude journaling, here’s something called courage inventory or journaling that can be extremely helpful in your journey of becoming more courageous.
So, maintain a record of the instances where you or someone around you has been particularly brave. Go back to this inventory when things get hard.
8. Embrace your failures.
Learning how to become more courageous in life is tedious and highly complex. And the fear of failure is not going to help. It can stop you from taking action and make you lose many important opportunities.
So, to be more brave, learn to welcome and embrace your failures. Accept failures as an opportunity to grow as a person. Once you start viewing it as a part of the process rather than a negative outcome, it’ll become much easier to deal with.
Conclusion:
Being courageous means having the power to stay strong even when things aren’t going your way. It makes you more self-aware and resilient while helping you become a better version of yourself.
This is why learning how to be more courageous in life is essential. We hope these tips will get you started in the right way.
Another way of becoming more courageous is by becoming more decisive in life. To learn how to make better decisions, click here. To continue learning about self-improvement and mental health daily, subscribe to Your Mental Health Pal.