What is courage and can I order it online?
Courage means “of the heart.” But, unlike the heart, it’s not something you’re born with, it’s something you learn and practice. This is the current understanding of courage according to the science underpinning exposure therapy, neuroplasticity, habit formation, and how courage works in the brain.
Many people think courage means not feeling fear when faced with danger. But that’s fearlessness, not courage. A bomb disposal expert may not need much courage to defuse a bomb because they’ve practiced and practiced, but the same person may lack the courage needed to give a speech at their mother’s funeral. It’s a matter of situation-specific skills. We can learn skills to lessen fear and to strengthen courage. That’s the bottom line of these three posts: you can learn the skill of choosing courage when you feel fear.
In this post we’ll explore what courage is and why we need it. Post 2 presents some of the science behind how courage works in the brain. Post 3 offers practical steps to make courage a reality in your life. Choosing courage helps you take the right action for the right outcome despite feeling fear.
Animal courage
The story is told of a community mice who lived in a barn. They had a good life: plenty of food, sunshine, and sleep. But they had one problem: a large cat who appeared silently out of nowhere to pounce on them. To improve their lives, a wise elder-mouse said that a mouse needed to volunteer to put a bell on the cat. But who had the courage to do it? Silence.
We often think of a lion as a symbol of courage. Many royal families have used a lion or bear to represent strength and superiority. But it’s mice and rabbits who need courage, not lions or bears. Lions are at the top of their food chain. With no predators, they don’t need courage. Courage is needed when you feel weak and vulnerable, not strong and secure. You and I need courage in our lives. There are many predators out there in our society apart from lions and bears.
What is courage?
Courage is not a lion’s strength or fearlessness. It’s not heroism or physical prowess. It’s not something you’re born with. In Disney’s Hercules, Hercules is strong, but his journey is to learn courageous, to make the right choices for the right reasons. Courage is a choice, and making the right choice often means giving up something easy or comfortable. At times, we need to choose between virtue and pleasure, or between pain and panic. We need to keep our heads together and not let fear overwhelm us, just like Hercules. We need to learn to choose courage in the face of fear just to do the right thing for the right reasons.
Being of the heart, courage is a mindset, an attitude. Psychology regards it as a character strength to be developed, not a personality trait that’s predetermined. As humans, we are vulnerable; to death and pain, to failures and each other’s judgment and rejection. These are our real predators. Because of them, we need courage to move forward in life.
Here are some useful definitions of courage:
Courage is the ability to remember what is worth prizing and what is worth fearing. – Plato
Courage is right action, with confidence, in situations of fear. It is the golden mean between cowardice and reckless impulsivity. – Aristotle
Courage is opposing any pressure to abandon your ideals or yourself. – Heinz Kohut
Courage is the capacity to rise to the occasion. – Martin Seligman
Courage = Feeling fear + Acting rightly + Having a higher purpose. – N.H. Gould
These all acknowledge that fear is part of the courage equation. Because we are vulnerable, we feel fear, and when fear appears, we have the opportunity to choose courage. That’s why ancient Greek philosophers saw courage as one of the four cardinal virtues, alongside temperance, wisdom, and justice.
In psychology, courage means acting for good despite fear and threats. In broader science, it’s regarded as one possible response to fear. It can be learned and practiced. In my clinical work with military personnel battling PTSD, I came to understand that courageous soldiers feel fear yet, even in their vulnerability, they act as needed. They make sacrifices for a higher cause. They do what they are trained to do. That’s courage.
Courage is also required to stand up for human dignity and human rights, to battle mental illness, to maintain healthy boundaries in toxic relationships, to say no when your addiction wants you to say yes, and to keep going despite trauma, setbacks or physical limitations. Here is my definition of courage:
In spite of feeling fear, courage is choosing to do the right action for the right outcome.
Why have courage?
In the first century, Seneca wrote that simply being alive takes courage. With courage you can achieve more of what matters to you and, if you choose, you can help make the world a better place (just a little). Courage is needed to pursue any worthy goal: calling out hypocrisy or racism, rescuing a drowning child, sitting for an exam, asking someone out, marketing an idea, requesting a raise, maintaining boundaries, or entering a competition. Many people I’ve worked with need courage just to get through another day because mental illness saps so much strength.
Do you ever feel fearful and vulnerable? So do I. We’re human. In our shared humanity, we can choose courage. We can learn it and practice it: choosing courage in the face of fear. Celebrate your courage, even if no one else sees it. It’s acting for a higher ideal: staying alive, expressing important ideas, or putting a bell on the cat for communal safety.
Next post, we’ll explore how courage works in the brain.
Cheers,
Dr Christian Heim
P.S. Courage cannot be ordered online.
[i] Rate, Christopher R., et al. "Implicit theories of courage." The Journal of Positive Psychology 2.2 (2007): 80-98.