Three guiding principles of courage (and it’s development)Written by Tracy Brinkmann
Three guiding principles of courage (and it’s development) By Tracy BrinkmannI have come under personal belief that everyone is a leader to someone. Whether that someone be an employee (or thousands of employees), your spouse, a child or at simplest level, oneself – you are a leader. As a leader you have responsibility to develop a level of courage first within your self, then to instill that level of courage in those that look to you for your leadership. It is key to note here that you must first achieve a level of courage within yourself before you even attempt to instill it in those around you. Why? Well answer is simple… how on earth can you pass on that which you do not have? You will never be able to encourage others beyond very level of courage that you carry and demonstrate on a regular basis. Your level of courage is only limiting bar. Raise that bar and you raise your ability to encourage others. The three guiding principles around raising that courageous bar are: 1.Courage = Controlling you fear. Growing up in a military environment taught me one thing that I know is fact - Everyone is afraid of something (often many things). From 6 foot Army Veteran who has served many months on front lines, to CEO of a Fortune 500 company, fear is a fact in each of their lives. But throughout history our true heroes were not men and women that were not afraid, but rather those that faced their fear, acted in spite of it, and moved forward to overcome its choke hold on their lives. 2.Face your fears. Realize that your fear is going to exist and maintain its control on your life, until you face it. Once you face it –YOU will gain control and your fear will falter, thus lessening its grip on your life. However, let us not forget that opposite is just as true. While moving towards that which you fear weakens that fear, avoiding it and heading away from that very same dread will empower and strengthen it, thus increasing its strangle hold on your life.
| | Are You Using All Your Soul’s Resources?Written by Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology, The EQ Coach
“Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed." -- William James I read it and want to run screaming, “No more depth, please, no more, I’m deep enough.” Adversities test our resilience and also build it. The good news about resiliency is, you can learn it. The bad news is, there will always be opportunity. Reverse adjectives; either way it works. Through all common adversities in my life, I used my general coping skills, and bounced on forward. But when my son died, everything became a platitude. It is true, you are never same. I coach people who've lost their child. If there's one thing they are, it's not judgmental. My theory is that once you’ve tried to wrap your mind around idea that your child has died before you did, you lose your appetite for idle thinking, which is what “judgmental” is. They also have a deep place that welcomes you, figuratively, when you connect with them; a reservoir carved out by grief. As my coach and friend Jilly Shaul ( http://www.lifematters.co.uk ), said, who's had her share, "I am not afraid of human emotion." She went out of her way to talk with a young friend who’s child had died, whom everyone else was avoiding. Jilly, no; when she hears sound of cannon, she goes toward them. One deeply experienced emotion, deepens them all; one emotion stifled, stifles rest.
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