courage has been a potential for everyone,
but it only becomes a reality
for those who are willing
to take the step
and pay the price
which is why courage remains habitually scarce!Women will know that they have achieved equality
when we are noted and praised
for our unique brand of steadfast courage.
YouTube: “Claim Your Courage”
January 2024
I will be receptive to courageous conversations
I will act with integrity to expose my true Self
I will be present as I address daily activities
I will accept compliments with grace
I will offer daily words of en-couragement to at least one person
I will maintain awareness that courage defines my “heart and spirit”
I will choose contentment (not complacency) as my daily walk
I will no longer swallow my voice
I will display “where courage meets grace” and pass it on
I will stay centered in my heart’s desires
I will engage in acts of everyday courage
What does “you have arrived” mean? You have arrived means you stop sabotaging your life by worrying too much to prove your worth. For my work in courage, to know “you’ve already arrived…” means the person lives a “courage-centered” life. It is intentional and declared from the heart!
The most critical issue as you embrace this forgotten virtue is to give yourself permission to claim your everyday courage — not the media’s angle of sensational, amazing, tragic, or scandalous types of headlines, but the type that allows you to brand your special style. When self-doubt creeps in, ask, “How can I act with courage?” The way to access your courage is to pause and reflect. Ask another question, “How do my scripts confirm my False Self (the incessant chatter of the ego) and bind me in my mind-created fear? For example, “One day I will be a pro/ready/skilled to … ?” Then determine how courage can differentiate you and showcase your talents.
Scripts keep you stuck. Where you are stuck? Until you take time to stop and reflect, to let go of attachments such as consumer gadgets and/or the self-identification to “busyness,” most of us will remain in our StuckThinking™ patterns. Staying stuck in our scripts keeps us doing the same thing over and over. When a host of difficulties comes your way, a courageous person refuses to give up in spite of the obstacles. But what’s the benefit of this energy?
A symbiotic relationship merges when you combine your personal courage and your intention. This says you witness courage at its best — a contagious antidote! Our culture perpetuates pitching courage and fear against each other. This pitching is the ego’s creation of duality such as good/bad, pretty/ugly, smart/dumb or courage/fear. I always think of the John Wayne quote that epitomizes and enables this dualistic belief and brands courage as bravado…
Courage is being scared to death …
and saddling up anyway.
A centered heart has no fear (unless a rattlesnake is looking you in the face or you are alone at night in a parking lot and you sense someone). Someone said, “One cannot discover new oceans until he [she] has courage to lose sight of the shore.”
Behaviors of Courageous Women
- Courageous women keep pressing forward when they have been passed over at work. They restructure their goals, take charge, and manifest a new vision. Whammy! They have reinvented themselves one more time. Settling is not an option. They know courage is an inside job, and “managing up” is the key to stepping up and taking control.
- Courageous women face uncertainty head on. Feeling discouraged is unacceptable. When someone tries to undermine their purpose with the “too syndrome” (“too strong,” “too bright, “too determined,” or “too direct”…), they reclaim their dormant feminine energy — courage! Courage becomes their chief ally to face the challenges.
- Courageous women recognize defining moments as they happen. Selling their soul or being a martyr to keep peace or maintain status quo is intolerable. These attitudes stifle courage. These women are proud of their individual courage when they are effective and forthright. They are eager to discover the next opportunity. They find themselves constantly asking, “What if I had unlimited courage?”
- Courageous women recognize and subscribe to the behaviors of courage. “Know thyself” becomes the mantra that lights their path. They become role models to imprint courage for other women. Their unsung stories of everyday courage are proudly declared so all women can stand in the celebration. This flowing reservoir of courage is then passed on to their daughters, nieces, and the girl next door.
- Courageous women “turn up” the quantity of courage—it’s the virtue they already possess! They investigate their hearts and realize their life’s purpose. They use the language of courage because they know their words describe their reality. They recognize the correlation between their success quotient and their courage quotient.
- Courageous women know courage is about their make-up—that it is a fundamental part of their nature. They are free to act through the portal of their heart. Such actions embody the original definition of courage: “heart and spirit.”
Global speaker Sandra Ford Walston is known as The Courage Expert. She is an internationally recognized speaker, human potential specialist, and author for over twenty years. She helps organizations, teams, and individuals tap into their courage. She found that there is a direct correlation between your success quotient and your courage quotient. She helped organizations from QBE, Agrium, Inc., US Bank, AGN, Procter & Gamble, Hensel Phelps, IBM, and Hitachi Consulting to integrate her “Courageous Leadership Development Model.” She instructed at the University of Denver.
Featured on the speaker circuit as witty, provocative, concrete and insightful, Sandra has sparked positive change in the lives of thousands of leaders each year. Sandra is the internationally published author of bestseller COURAGE: The Heart and Spirit of Every Woman/Reclaiming the Forgotten Virtue (endorsed by Marianne Williamson and Jack Canfield) along with the follow-up book for working women, The COURAGE Difference at Work: A Unique Success Guide for Women and non-gender FACE IT! 12 Courageous Actions that Bring Success at Work and Beyond.
Walston’s work has been published in magazines such as Chief Learning Officer, Real Simple, The Washington Executive, Ziglar Newsletter,Vertical Distinct (Malaysia), TrainingIndustry.com, Personal Excellence: The Magazine of Life Leadership, Fast Company, and Strategic Finance.
Ms. Walston is a certified coach. She is certified to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and a certified Enneagram teacher. She enjoys bringing both to her work. Sign up for her free monthly courage newsletter or RSS Courage Blog or please visit www.sandrawalston.com or send an email [email protected].
Her favorite mantra:
Thoughts on the Coaching Process:
To live on purpose means to not live by accident. One way to start the process of discovery is to simply ask yourself, ‘What is my purpose here on this earth, and what will I do with my life?’ The answers to these questions provide insight and help you discover your heart’s desire. Learning is the catalyst for maintaining focus on your purpose.
— Excerpt from Courage: The Heart and Spirit of Every Woman Reclaiming the Forgotten Virtue
Uncertainty is an inevitable condition throughout life. While we would like to get up each day to face this perpetual unknown with courage, all too often, we feel dis-couraged. Discouragement saps our energy and resolve. Maybe that’s why the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote, “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
Accepting the impossibility of knowing the future, of predicting an outcome, requires enormous courage. Yet, rarely do our parents, much less society, prepare us how to confront this elusive predicament by teaching us about the virtue of courage.
While courage is generally defined as facing and dealing with danger or difficulty, for me, the essence of courage is a spiritual energy from the heart that in defining moments motivates a person to take action. In other words, it’s when a situation requires you to “step up” and display the authentic you, and you do!”
— Excerpt from With Courage, Your Passion Cannot Be Doused
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Denver, Colorado 80231
Nancy Harnum says
Sandra-
Very powerful message. I would love to meet you for tea sometime.
I am a Five Element Acupuncturist I live and work in Denver and also commute to an office in Arvada 3 days a week.
Helping a person be courageous on a daily basis is good medicine 🙂