It Takes Courage is an article taken from Samantha's e-zine in which she explores Spiritual Life Coaching Principles.

It Takes Courage

Yesterday I had the joy of hosting a book signing event at my local Borders store, which in turn created the opportunity for me to talk to some wonderful people. Wonderful people because all of them were striving to bring in the changes that they knew needed to be made.

I admire and am inspired by people like that. 'Everyday' people who are living 'normal' lives but are choosing to strike out and make conscious choices about how they live their lives.

Some people knew the changes to make and some where still unsure as to what changes to make. What I loved about the people I met yesterday and indeed the people I meet everyday of my life is that they were willing to consider that they may be worth a better quality of life.

As I sat talking to one lady in particular the subject of courage came up and I felt this was something, or rather my feelings on it, were something I should share with everyone this week.

You see for me courage - true courage - is about finding the strength to bring in changes even though we know it may bring unhappiness to those around us. Courage is about making changes that deep down we know need to be made in order to live a more positive life, even though we may face attack or a lack of understanding by those around us.
When the changes we need to make affect other people we often shy away from bringing in those changes.

Instead we settle for 'less than', rather than risk 'rocking the boat'. Courage in it's finest moment is about making those changes anyway and trusting that the eventual outcome will be worth the initial discomfort and dis-ease in our environment.

We make the changes because something in us knows that it is time and it will not let it go until we do, that something is our soul. Our soul calls to us when it is need. These are the moments that require courage.

This Week's Exercise

This week I want you spend time giving thought to the changes that you would bring in if you could find the courage to do so.

If you could hold onto that courage what changes would you make right now?

Perhaps you need to spend a little time looking backwards this week and ask yourself what changes you would have made along the way if you had found the courage at the time.

Write your findings down. Allow yourself to visualise how your life would be if you did find the courage to bring in those changes or even just one of those changes.

It takes courage to admit you have taken yourself off in the wrong direction in your career. It takes courage to admit that you are in a loveless marriage.

It takes courage to admit that you are lonely.

It takes courage to admit that actually you like where you are and simply feel obliged to be striving for bigger and better things all the time.

It takes courage to recognise that there is something about your life that you do not like or even something about yourself that you do not like at this time and find the strength to do something about it. I encourage you to ask for courage this week.