Courage to be successful

When people think of those who are successful, they often think about individuals who did something others were afraid to do. However, most don’t truly explore what made them do those things. Most of the time, it started with courage that drove them and propelled them into success! Courage is one of the key ingredients needed to be successful (or more successful) in the professional world, but it is also applicable in our personal world as well. 

Success means going above, beyond, or past where we are currently. This can be infinite in the ways we look at it. To go to a place different than we are today requires growth, and with growth comes pain. Think back to when you were a young child – did you have growing pains? Many of us did. These were very physical in nature; and we could really feel pain as our bodies grew. How does this relate to courage you might ask? Courage is the bridge or factor that allows us to choose to enter the area where we will likely have pain from growth. Unlike the growing pains we had as children, much of our growing pains as adults are by choice.

We often hear about a mystical and magical place called the comfort zone – each of us has one. This is the place where we likely know the answers to questions, can predict (to a certain degree) the outcome of situations, and feel safe because we have comfort about what is going on and what will happen. 

To be more successful, we need to exit our comfort zone. Courage is what helps us figure out how to leave it and ultimately allows us to burst out of it. When we exit our comfort zone, we have to grow. It is not an option. Even if things do not go the way we ultimately wanted, we have the ability to learn from what may not have worked. Those with courage are the ones who choose to do things that make them leave their comfort zone.

If we analyze this from a professional standpoint, it is easy to see courage is what allows individuals to try things that have not been tried, accomplish things that have not been achieved, or to go places that have not been found. Courage also gives us the ability to ask questions we do not know the answer to or that we may be afraid to hear the answer to. 

Without courage, there would be no growth we would all stay in our comfort zones forever and never be able to do or try things differently. Fortunately, throughout time there have been many people with the courage to do things that had previously not been done.

Do you have the courage to ask the tough questions, make those scary cold calls, visit with difficult clients, walk into new situations, or embark on responsibilities that have yet to be defined? If so, you are likely in a great place to grow. If you don’t and truly want to grow outside your comfort zone, find a business growth consultant who can help.