How To Build Courage

Do you want to know how to build courage so you can become more confident and act on your goals?

Do you lack the courage to face your fears or challenging situations?

Has your lack of courage stopped you from taking action towards achieving your goals and you’re looking for ways to build more courage?

A lot of people lack the courage to do certain things in their lives; things such as starting a business, choosing a career, investing, talking to people among other important things.

The end result of this is that they miss out on the wonderful opportunities to achieve success.

Either in business or life generally, you need the courage to make major decisions, take risks, and do certain things that could bring about your success.

Hence, the need for you to read on to find out how to build courage.

How To Build Courage

Fear keeps you stuck and stops you from taking action to achieve success.

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of fear.

Firstly, there’s the fear of physical harm/danger.

This kind of fear makes you flee from dangerous/life-threatening situations.

On the other hand, there’s the fear of uncertainty and hurting your ego.

It is this kind of fear that most people struggle with daily in their lives.

This is the kind of fear that you need courage to overcome.

Furthermore, it is this kind of fear that we’ll make reference to throughout this discussion.

Before we consider how to build courage, let’s discover what courage is all about.

What is Courage?

Contrary to what most people think, courage is not the absence of fear.

It is not about being fearless.

Then what is it about?

Courage is the ability to withstand fear.

In other words, it is having the mental agility to take action in spite of your fears.

Bear in mind, however, that courage does not mean taking blind action or uncalculated steps towards danger.

A lot of successful people especially business owners/entrepreneurs are very courageous.

This is because business involves a lot of risk-taking and you need the courage to be able to take risks.

“Success belongs to those who are courageous enough to push themselves for success against all odds”.

Those who are courageous enough to venture into unchartered territories are those who achieve success.

People like, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama among others are celebrated today because of their courage against all odds to achieve success.

Hence, if you want to succeed either in business or life generally, you need to have courage.

Having understood what courage is, let’s also examine what courage is not.

There are certain misconceptions about courage that need clarification.

Here’s a list of what courage isn’t about.

Courage is not the absence of fear.
It isn’t about having false confidence.
It is also not about having no limitations/weaknesses.
Furthermore, it is not about being a hero.
Courage is also not about blind optimism.

Now you know what courage is and isn’t, let’s move on to find out how to build courage.

Super-Effective Ways On How To Build Courage

Do you lack the courage to take certain bold actions towards achieving your goals?

Are you about to start a business but you’ve been holding back because you are afraid of the uncertainties in business?

Here’s how you can build courage so you can be more confident to work on achieving your set goals.

Identify Your Fears

The first step you would want to take to build courage is to identify your fears.

In order to solve a problem, you need to know what it is you’re dealing with.

So, to build courage, you need to know what it is you’re afraid of that you need the courage to face.

Are you holding back on starting a business because you’re afraid of failing?

Are you afraid of talking to people, heights, being alone, or trying new things?

By knowing what your specific fears are, you can then come up with a suitable plan of action to overcome them and build your courage.

To identify your fears, you can reflect on situations where you’ve refused to take action on certain things.

Make a list of those things as they’ll give you an idea of what your fears are.

Determine The Source of Fear

Another important step to take to build courage is to trace the source of fear.

There’s always a leading cause of fear.

For most people, the lack of courage they experience today is as a result bad childhood experiences such as (being bullied, abuse, rejection, and disappointment).

More so, past mistakes or failures cause people to lack the courage to do things in their present lives.

It’s possible that you’ve had bitter experiences in the past where you’ve failed at something and that experience is making you lack the courage to try again.

It’s also possible that you have the fear of rejection because you’ve been rejected on one or more occasions.

So, to determine the source of your fear, reflect on these past experiences.

This is so, you can know the best approach to take to overcome your fears.

Thereby, helping you build courage.

Have A Compelling Why

One of the strong motivating forces to achieving anything worthwhile is to have a strong purpose attached to that goal.

Likewise, to achieve your goal to build courage you must have a compelling why.

Why do you want to build courage?

Why not just remain as you are and continue to allow your lack of courage to keep you stuck?

Even more, what is that one thing that is so important to you that you need to be courageous to do?

Do you want to build courage to become a more confident person so you can accomplish your dreams?

Ask yourself these questions.

This would help you identify the importance of courage to you.

Overall, it would give you the motivation you need to stay committed to the process of building courage.

Be Willing To Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone

To build courage, you must be willing to step out of your comfort zone.

This might be an unpleasant thing to do.

However, it is one of the effective ways to build courage.

Stepping out of your comfort zone requires that you push yourself to do things you don’t normally do.

By doing so, you’ll learn to cope with uncertainties and unfamiliar situations which are some of the common causes of fear and lack of courage.

Be open to putting yourself in challenging situations.

Over time, you’ll become more comfortable with trying new things.

Even more, you’ll become more confident in your abilities.

Consequently, helping you build courage.

Believe In Yourself

One of the reasons people lack the courage to do certain things in their lives is because they lack self-belief.

Self-belief is having faith in yourself and your abilities.

You can build courage by practicing self-belief and taking action on your fears.

As said earlier on, courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to take action in spite of your fears.

So, what is that thing that you lack the courage to do?

Believe in yourself, make your plans, and take action.

By taking action on your fears, you’ll gain confidence in yourself and build more courage.

Develop A Growth Mindset

Another way you can build courage is by developing a growth mindset.

Having a growth mindset is having the belief that your basic abilities can be improved.

A growth mindset is a mindset for success that allows you to see failure as a learning opportunity.

Many people lack courage because they are afraid of taking risks and experiencing failure.

However, by developing a growth mindset, you’ll be open to taking calculated risks.

Additionally, you’ll learn to accept failure as an experience from which you can learn from your mistakes and improve yourself and your abilities.

With this kind of mindset, each time you’re faced with a challenging situation filled with uncertainties, you’ll be willing to take action.

This is because you know whatever the outcome would be, you’ll have something to learn from that situation.

Thus, helping you build courage at that moment and in the future.

Take Small Brave Steps

You don’t expect to move from being someone without courage to a courageous person all of a sudden.

It doesn’t happen overnight.

Building courage is just like developing a new skill or more like trying to develop the habit of exercising.

You have to take it one step at a time.

In other words, build-up courage by learning to take brave actions one small step at a time.

For example, you’re afraid of speaking in public (fear of public speaking).

To build courage in this situation, you should start by talking to smaller groups of people (maybe two or three people at most in a group).

When you can confidently speak to at least two or three people at once, you can then progress to a slightly larger group of people.

This approach can be applied to any situation where you lack courage either in business, school, work, or personal life.

As a business owner, do you lack courage to start a business?

Do your research to understand the business you want to start.

Take a step and start then as time goes on you might even gain the confidence to expand your business.

Thereby, helping you build courage.

Think Positively

Most of our fears spring up from negative thoughts.

These could be negative thoughts about ourselves, situations, and the actions we are about to take.

Hence to become more courageous to take action on your goals and achieve success, you’ll need to stop your negative thought pattern.

You’re about to start a business and you’re thinking what if I fail?

Rather than think so, think of what can I do to ensure that I succeed in my business?

Negative thinking would only make you see the negative side of things.

Thereby, making it difficult for you to take action.

On the other hand, positive thinking would help you see the silver lining (positive side of things) in every situation.

Thereby, helping you act confidently on your goals and helping you build more courage.

Learn Constantly

Another major cause of fear is a lack of knowledge, skills, and expertise.

Most people are afraid of taking on new challenges because they lack the required skills/ knowledge or expertise to succeed in that aspect.

Therefore to boost your confidence and build more courage to take up new challenges make constant learning a habit.

Take up courses to learn new skills.

Read books that would broaden your knowledge.

Develop yourself and improve your skills in areas that are aligned with your goals in life.

There’s a kind of confidence that comes with being competent.

By learning constantly, you’ll be open to taking on challenges knowing fully well that you have what it takes to succeed.

Thereby, helping you build courage to face difficult situations.

Take Action

Another effective way to build courage is to take action.

When you lack courage the best thing to do is to face your fears and take action.

Many people delay taking action on their goals, in the hope that someday they’ll be courageous enough to do it.

The longer you wait to act on your goals, the more anxious you feel about the whole situation.

So, to build courage you need to take a bold step to conquer your fears and act on them.

By facing your fears and acting on them, you’ll begin to feel confident.

Remember, courage is not about being fearless rather it is about challenging your fears and taking action.

Hence, with each fear you boldly challenge and act on you become more courageous.

Thus helping you build courage.

Speaking of taking action; here are some quotes on courage that you could read, reflect on, and recite to help you face your everyday challenges.

Think of it as a courage boosting exercise.

Quotes To Boost Your Courage Daily

Here are a few inspiring quotes to spark up your courage as you go about your activities daily.

“You can choose courage, or you can choose comfort, but you cannot choose both.” ―Brené Brown

“Being brave means knowing that when you fail, you don’t fail forever.” ―Lana Del Rey

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” ―Steve Jobs

“Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.” ―Paulo Coelho

“Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.” ―P. T. Barnum

“To a brave man, good and bad luck are like his left and right hand. He uses both.” ―St. Catherine of Siena

Dale Carnegie: “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

“Courage is being scared to death… and saddling up anyway.” ―John Wayne

Benefits of Building Courage

Now you know how to build courage.

What do you stand to gain by becoming more courageous?

In all aspects of life, it is important that you are courageous.

This because, without courage, you’ll never really live up to your full potential.

Apart from that, there are so many benefits that come with being courageous and they include;

You’ll become more confident.
You stand a higher chance of achieving your goals.
By building courage, you become less anxious about life generally (thereby helping you live a happier life).
You’ll grow and learn (you’ll make progress).
You’ll become good at taking calculated risks (which is a necessary prerequisite for achieving success).
Furthermore, you’ll build more resilience.
You’ll develop intrinsic motivation (self-motivation).