Courage has always been a trait that I have admired in other people and wished for myself. I also love to oversimplify, and for a long time I’ve seen in courage just the opposite of fear. No more, no less.
Over time though, I have realized that it was an incorrect notion that needed to be made right. For too long I’ve seen courage as being just the fuel for risk-taking, without making any room for fear in that equation. Yet, the defining quality of courage is not fearless action, but the willingness of taking a worthwhile risk despite being afraid of its consequences.
In fact, courage is less of an innate character strength than it is a skill; it’s indeed possible to intentionally develop courage when the right skills are in place. Nelson Mandela as said: “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” Courage comes generally in three different forms: physical, psychological, and moral.
Psychological courage includes a mental risk, in which one must admit to a mistake or risk making others uncomfortable.
Moral courage is the ability to doing the right thing and standing up for personal values, even if it comes at a personal cost.
Further, there are generally four components to courage. First, an uncertain outcome is required; if we’re sure that something is going to work out, there’s no need for courage. Then there has to be the presence of fear caused by a perceived or a real risk. The fourth and final component is that the individual perceiving a risk and feeling fear for an uncertain outcome takes action through courage.
Courage isn’t a reckless leap into the unknown either. It first require assessing the risks involved, gathering information to reach a final decision, and monitoring the downside consequences. Courage is needed when one takes these above steps and still cannot fully manage or control the outcome.
So remember it this way: “Having courage is taking action when the stakes are high and the result uncertain.”
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