The Courage to Grow

The more of life we experience, the more we know and therefore the greater our perspective becomes. Truly experiencing life is what makes us grow and realize what it is that we truly want. And what does it mean to truly experience life? It means taking risks, facing fear, being open to opportunities, trusting yourself, pushing your limits, learning from challenges and taking consistent action in the direction of your passion because you know that at the end of the day you are doing what is right for you. Putting forth that courage to experience life in this way is worth a lot. Being courageous involves taking action, despite what the result may be. For info on the power of taking action and specific ways to take action, refer to the following article: http://breathingeverymoment.blogspot.ca/2012/09/the-power-of-taking-action.html
Being courageous involves doing what you feel is right, making decisions for yourself and having confidence in these decisions, knowing that at the end of the day each choice you make to take action will result in growth. In this article, I will outline the specific ways that you can use your courage to gain the most from your life experience.

1 You Take Risks and Face Fear

Having courage means pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and facing the unknown. It means doing things that you don't usually do. It means saying "yes!" to discomfort and uncertainty because you know that experiencing new things will allow you to discover what you like or don't like. Experiencing new things gives you the opportunity to become clear about your values and preferences. The more you experience, the more you push your limits, the stronger and more focused you become.

2 You Set Goals and Face your Challenges

Being courageous means identifying the things that you want, creating goals out of them and facing the challenge of achieving them, while realizing that you are more powerful than you previously believed yourself to be. What do you want? By setting goals, you are giving yourself the opportunity to achieve the things that you want. Do you want to travel? Meet new and interesting people? Learn a new skill? Redecorate your living space? Whatever it is that you want, you have the power to create it. So set short-term and long-term goals by actually writing them down. Also, know that the challenges you face as you work towards achieving your goals are the perfect opportunities to gather your courage and tell yourself that no matter what the challenge is, you will find a way to handle it.

3 You Welcome Change

When things don't work, changes need to be made. If a situation is not making us feel good, this is when we need to become aware of what is not working and what we can do to create positive change. Resisting change is unhealthy. And by resisting I mean letting yourself become a victim to the negative effects of a situation. Sometimes we become comfortable in the way things are because trying something new is scary. But this is where courage comes in. Be courageous and tell yourself that as long as you are doing something that doesn't feel good, you won't know what else is out there. The only way to find what does work is to take action and try new things.

Change of plans:

We make plans for the day, the week and our lives, but sometimes plans need to be changed. Perhaps the plan we set in place becomes something we don't want or need anymore. This is the perfect time to be courageous, refocus, reset our priorities and create a new path of action. Often, new and better opportunities present themselves. In this situation, it is great to be flexible and spontaneous and allow for better things to come our way despite the change of plans.

4 You Follow your Passion no Matter What

It takes courage to be independent, do what you want and follow your passion. But this courage is worth a lot because you are investing in your own future. Following your heart may mean being on your own because you are not doing what other people are doing. You are doing what you want to do instead of following society's expectation of what "should be done". Well let me tell you that there is no "right" way to do things. It is through following your heart that you will find the most meaning. This is the greatest step of courage and always a worthwhile one.