Always Be Courageous

Yesterday I wrote Always Be Contributing. Later, I thought of another riff on that:

Always Be Courageous.

On New Year’s Eve we had little envelopes on each of our plates, to write down our new year’s resolutions. We told each other and talked about it a bit, but it didn’t get quite as interesting as I think it could have.

I far one had a mental block and was unable to think of any other than the no-brainer that I wanted to have another child.

The exercise sparked something in me, though.

In the next few days, I’ve been asking myself and my friends the question, what would you do this year if you knew it would be your last, that you’d die at the end of 2007? Some interesting conversations and insights have come from this.

One thing I realized was that fear was holding me back. Fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, fear of not living up to people’s expectations, fear of not being good enough, fear of not being successful, fear of failure, fear of not being liked.

In 2007 I want to be courageous.

Kierkegaard said, and I’ve always treasured this quote:

“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.”

(In Danish: “At turde er at miste fodfæste for en stund. Ikke at turde er at miste livet.”)

More than anything else, I want to have the courage to do what I feel is right and true, and ignore what other people think.

If 2007 was the last year of my life, that’s what I’d put first. I think the rest follows from that. Including contribution. Not contributing is the learned state, contributing is the natural state.

Remember, courage is not absence of fear. Courage is to acknowledge the fear, but to go ahead anyway.

Happy 2007!