Courage is Fear, Conquered by Love

I saw this message once, on a board outside a church, while I was trying to come up with the right thing to say to a friend who seemed to me to be paralyzed by fear in confronting a work situation. I passed on the message, which seems to me to be excellent counsel.

The point is that to be courageous is different from being fearless. If you are fearless, you may be merely crazy, or reckless, or lacking in imagination. Courage is the ability to go through fear because you are driven by something that is stronger than fear. What drives you may be love, or loyalty, or a cause.

Courage is a quality of the heart; you won’t find it anywhere else. The French word for heart – coeur – is in there.

When you are gripped by fear in the face of an experience that will take you beyond your comfort zone, you may be at a point of supreme opportunity. You can either break down or break through.

When we take greater risks, we draw the support of greater powers.

Adapted from Active Dreaming: Journeying Beyond Self-Limitation to a Life of Wild Freedom by Robert Moss. Published by New World Library.