What is courage really?

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Persig wrote about ‘gumption’ and used this image: “He’s at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see what’s up the track and meeting it when it comes.”  

Gumption is an old-fashioned term for courage and, so, Persig believes that courage is meeting life head on – not running away or pretending that the more difficult things don’t exist or will somehow disappear.

Fear is a normal part of human life and I believe it is important that we acknowledge this. We have legitimate fears, those things we experience in the face of danger. And we experience fear in more subtle ways, when we face things that are unknown or uncertain and which often come on a daily or weekly basis.

For the most part, we keep our fears in check by acknowledging their existence, examining them for truth, and then letting them slip away. Some fears are remarkably resilient, especially around relationships and finances, and they can cripple us, preventing us from entering into new experiences for fear that the past will repeat itself. Such fears impede our progress.  

Courage, however, is not the absence of fear; it is acting in the face of fear. And, as Brene Brown reminds us, “courage is a heart word”. The Latin root of courage is cor and, in one of its earliest forms, courage means “to speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart”. Telling all one’s heart denotes an essence of authenticity around courage, a decision to act in accordance with who we are at our core.

Which is why courage and risk can be two sides of the same coin. I’m not talking about foolish risks but, rather, the considered balancing of danger or loss against the potential for gain. A considered risk allows us to face the danger and its accompanying fears and to make decisions in accordance with our heart.

Many many times people have told me that I’m very brave and I’ve often responded that I felt I had no choice. Of course, I’ve had choice in what I’ve done but there is a sense in which I’ve had no choice because my bravery, my courage, has been to follow the leading of my heart, my essential core. I’ve stayed true to who I am – and discovered more of who I am along the way.

So, I think I’ll stay at the front of the train of my own awareness, watching to see what’s up the track and meeting it when it comes. How about you?