Training your courage….. emotional courage.
Many situations in life call upon us to do something we find frightening, disappointing, uneasy, nervousness, provoking, or distressing, in other words, to display emotional courage by stepping outside our sweet comfort zones and do what we know is right or healthy despite the agitation we feel. Unfortunately, our natural inclination in such moments is to avoid the situation or hesitate, or to find excuses and justifications that allow us a graceful and sometimes, not-so-graceful exit, so we, again and again, continue to avoid the situation.
The problem with continuous avoidance is that it always comes with a unique price. Anytime we avoid something that makes us nervous, that very thing automatically becomes intimidating in our minds. Further, many of these things we avoided so far, end up having an impact on our careers, relationships, or friendships because we are unable to voice our concerns or disapproval or to ask for a promotion, or we end up using our own mental and emotional resources dealing with unresolved remorse or regret. In addition, continuous avoidance weakens our emotional bouncing back and it prevents us from growing and reaching our own full potential.
Tackling or dealing with these difficult hurdles requires emotional courage but what does that really mean? Having emotional courage is actually different than being emotionally strong.
Interestingly emotional strength reflects our own ability on how quickly we bounce back from setbacks and challenges over the period of the short and long term. An emotional courage is about a brief moment, a crucial and a critical instant in which we take an action–we choose to caution our own confidence or convictions, beliefs, and clear intentions and do what we know in our mind is good for us, instead of heeding our own fears and nervousness and continuing to avoid the situation.
In professional lives, It is about achieving good results, it is about leading your team in difficult situations and to do that…. it is hard. It is about doing it from the front with courage in the right spirit. It is about whether you’re really willing to experience that discomfort, risk, and own doubt of saying or doing it. In other words, the most critical challenge of leadership is emotional courage. If you are willing to feel everything, then you can actually do anything. It is about handling difficult situations without sacrificing professional ground. By building that mental state of mind, the courage to say the absolutely necessary but difficult things, you become a stronger leader.
Apparently, any kind of leadership looks very straightforward, but how many people actually lead? The actual gap between theory and real-life practice is huge. Believe it or not, emotional courage is what bridges that distance. It’s what sets great leaders apart from the rest of the crowd. Once you practice courageously, It will start to give you results. It cuts through the interfering distractions, the noise, and the politics to solve problems and get things done.
- Have the courage to speak up when others remain mute.
- Be stable mentally and grounded in an uncertain situation.
- Responding productively to opposition without losing your focus or getting defensive.
- Skillfully handling people who push back.
- Raising hard-to-talk-about issues in a way that others agree to address them.
- Showing up in critical leadership moments with confidence.
Emotional courage means we are willing to connect to all aspects of ourselves and feel and deal with whatever comes up tactfully.