Is courage only for hard things?

Today feels like a breadcrumb. Or, a step along an emerging path. 

I shared Wednesday’s post with Monique, who inspired the start of this journey many years ago.

She replied with a note of thanks for my bravery in capturing the work, in giving hope, focus and clarity to something still taking shape.

That made me pause. Bravery is a word I associate with Monique through her work, including Bravery in the Boardroom.

But bravery for writing a series of blog posts?

This really prompted much thought today. I realise I tend to associate bravery and courage with doing “hard things”. Speaking up. Doing the right thing. Leading. Taking steps that might not be popular. 

I’m starting to unhook from the belief that courage shows up when something is difficult, because something is wrong. When there’s a wrong to right. A problem to fix.

Today, Monique planted a seed that perhaps it takes just as much courage to share your dreams. Your hopes for the future.

I can see there’s huge vulnerability there. In daring to dream. In articulating it to yourself and then naming it out loud.

Perhaps this is one of the early conditions of courageous change: the space to dream a dream, and the belief to name it. Even if some people don’t get it. Or think you’re weird or wrong (I’ve had both!)

📍Note for exploration:

• Where does courage show up the quieter decisions? Brene Brown’s work explores this. Who else?

• Is the experience of courage different when doing “hard things” versus things like dreaming and naming hope?

• What might it mean to describe this as a condition for change? Where in Spark’s work have we seen this so far?

Thinking Out Loud is where I share short pieces of thinking from the middle of the work. Ideas, questions and lived experiences, shared while they’re still forming. (Tiny Experiments Pact: Day 5/100).