At a meeting the other day, I found myself in my head. It was drawing to a close, I was procrastinating and I knew it. I was there to discuss a few issues and the one that made me somewhat uncomfortable, was the one issue I hadn’t raised. Wouldn’t you know it?!
I acknowledged my fear and realized that I would be very disappointed in myself if I didn’t raise the issue. Probably more disappointed than if he told me no. I asked myself “What do you really have to lose?” I replied, “My self-esteem."
Whoa, that’s too high a price I thought.
So I took a deep breath, smiled while looking him in the eyes and asked my question. He pondered then responded with an interesting creative suggestion that I hadn’t considered at all. It wasn’t the answer I went in there hoping for, yet I felt like I received more than I had asked for.
I felt fantastic! Fantastic because I acted in spite of my fear and fantastic because I gained a new perspective and fresh thoughts were bubbling up. I grinned all the way to my car because I had overcome one small fear. Or in other words, I had exercised my courage muscle. Eleanor Roosevelt famously said “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
So I am going to take her advice to heart and consider it my daily courage practice. What about you? If you're up for a challenge, please consider joining me. Here's how:
Before you go to bed each night this week, think of one thing you can do the next day that makes you uncomfortable. Like it's probably the way to go, but there's uncertainty involved and you'd just as soon put it off.
Commit to making one daily courage move a day and let’s see where we land by the end of the week. By the way, I don't expect all of my courage moves to be work related :) Have a wonderful week!
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