Why we need courage “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.” – Maya Angelou, Pulitzer Prize nominated poet, author, historian, actress, playwright, political activist (born 1928) Words of advice may come flying at us from hither and yon, especially in early recovery. We’re often given suggestions that may come so fast and frequent that we have a hard time digesting them, let alone remembering their content. Sometimes, doesn’t it seem as though we need a tape recording of conversations so that we have a ready-made transcript? Better yet, a brief synopsis would come in really handy. Yes, we want to be compassionate, to be diligent and persistent and devoted and committed to our recovery. Yes, we want to be truthful and live up to our words and do what we say. We also want to do our part to make the world a better place, one day at a time. We want to heal. We want to encourage others in their healing journey. We want to offer solace and comfort to others, just as they’ve offered to us. A lot of what we want to do, what we’ve been advised to strive for, requires more than just casual thought. Especially for those of us who have emerged from rehab somewhat shell-shocked and a bit uncertain about what recovery is all about, all these recommendations seem more than just things to work toward. They may also seem totally out of reach, at least for now. What we need is courage. There isn’t much we’ll ever get done without first finding that reservoir of courage and pulling it out to use it. We might well ask ourselves where courage comes from. That’s actually an excellent question. The answer is that it comes from within. Courage doesn’t mean the absence of fear. We can be frightened of something and still go ahead with necessary action. We acknowledge our fear, but we don’t allow it to stand in our way or stop us from fulfilling what it is that we want to do – or need to do, for that matter. The good thing to remember about courage is that it grows over time. When we first approach an activity, problem, issue or challenge that fills us with apprehension, fear or dread, and somehow figure out a way to keep moving forward – not taking unnecessary chances, but making a conscious and informed choice – the result is that we have increased our measure of courage. Each time we do this, we add to our reservoir of courage. What about the actions we take that require courage but don’t result in success? We know that not everything we attempt will be immediately successful. Yet we do learn something about ourselves and our capabilities each time we attempt something that may be challenging, uncomfortable, unknown or scary. It may be time to remind ourselves that life worth living requires us to step outside our comfort zone – if there really is such a thing. Going after our dreams, taking steps to achieve our goals – all of this requires that we be an active participant in our recovery journey. No one else can do this for us. We need to recognize that we do have it in us to be courageous, in little things as well as the big ones. ~iPromises~ Jen
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 12:19:40 +0000
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