How to Make Courage (Largely) Unnecessary

Courage is not limited to the battlefield. The real tests of courage are much quieter. They are the inner tests, like enduring pain when the room is empty or standing alone when you’re misunderstood. – Charles Swindoll

You know, I’m not sure I agree with this quote. It caught my eye because I recently posted about courage and what it really is, in real life.

It’s not that reject Swindoll’s notion, only that it elevates “courage” to a less-than-useful place.What I mean is that, instead of needing “courage” to deal with empty rooms, misunderstanding or whatever, what if we recreated our ways of thinking?

What if the way we thought about these things didn’t create discomfort, upset or fear?

What if the way we thought about most everything didn’t create negative feeling-states?

I submit that our energies are better spent examining our thinking (our values, beliefs and “rules”) and find out where the “friction points” are. Those places where our thinking rubs up against – and often conflicts with – reality.

I prefer to believe that the great many things that “cause” us pain, or feelings of being misunderstood – or whatever “thought/reality conflict” you can imagine – are the result of using our Minds* and Thoughts* less-than-constructively (and, may I suggest, improperly).

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* For more on how thought creates feeling and feelings are our experience of life, see Syd Banks, George Pranksy and Michael Neill (et. al… ).