Inspire Bravery

This week an experienced and skilled coach and facilitator asked to have a video call with me as they had read some of my posts and wanted to ask for my thoughts on a particular theme, that of BRAVERY.

“O wad some Power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us!”

Translation : “Oh to have the ability to see ourselves as others see us.”

Robert Burns – “To a Louse”

It was fascinating and a pleasure and privilege to have someone ask questions of me to listen and reflect how they saw me and that they saw me as BRAVE. They also reflected in their words and energy that the conversation inspired them to both recognise where they are brave themselves and to bring that even more to their work.

I feel inspired today, then, to share some thoughts on bravery.

So to some thoughts around bravery, I hope some are of value to you on your own journey of awareness and action in being brave.

Bravery in introducing yourself

To begin, the conversation reminded me of one of the fun ways I answer the networking question “so, what do you do?”, I simply say that I:

Inspire Bravery

This typically is met with: “what do you mean?”, to which I will gently and with focus redirect with something like: “when I said that, what first came to mind for you?”, or “where are you brave and where would you like to be braver?”, or “when you are being brave, what is it that inspires you?”.

It is perhaps a little brave to open a conversation with a stranger that way, but as my friend Morgan Da Costa says, there are: “no ordinary moments”, so it filters those wanting to engage in real conversation from those making small talk.

Bravery is individual

We are all brave in our own way. Bravery is not leaping off tall buildings, just as being entrepreneurial does not mean risking everything. There is a spectrum and infinite variety.

Bravery is a feeling

Perhaps obvious, but bravery is a feeling, you know it when you are being it. You may even feel that, for you, this creates a sense of “Flow“.

When you feel the chance to be brave, it is always your choice to take it or to shrink from it.

Look up, rather than down

I am not a fan of the “feel the fear and do it anyway” approach. What if, instead, you chose to be without fear, to simply take bravery in small steps.

If you are focussed in a forward-looking way at being braver, you are much more likely to take those steps than if you are constantly looking backwards at your fears and “doing it anyway”.

To use a mountain climbing metaphor, look up, never look down, you are heading to the top, where you have been matters not.

More on bravery

Finally, a link to pages of past posts tagged with the word bravery. To find even more under any search term, a quick google tip is to enter “site:tommccallum.com” into google, followed by the term you are searching for.

Be a little brave and book a call

Oh, to have your own half-hour video call with me, book it right here. Go ahead, I’d love to connect.