Courage is something we all want to have. There’s many kinds of courage: the physical courage that a soldier finds within themselves in battle – one foot in front of the other, advancing, not running away. There’s emotional courage that shows itself when you lose someone, you take those first few steps on the road back and begin to challenge the grief that’s held you down. There’s intellectual courage, the kind that keeps a person going when they believe in what they are doing – in spite of the doubters, the challenges and the odds. This is the courage they make movies about, these are the grand slams of courage.
There’s other ways to get there though – small bits of courage that add up in the end to a courageous life. We dig deep and take a a stand, we look at things from an unfamiliar point of view, we accept that we might be wrong – this takes courage. Changing our perspective so we see the world differently, one we wish to remain in, rather than leave for somewhere better.
Most of us look about our daily lives and too often see the things we don’t have. Our default is fear-based, seeing the things we don’t have more often than the things we do quickly becomes a habit. That simple fear is now conditioning, a lens we view our world through regardless of all we have – one where we focus on the things we still hope to acquire. Why? It’s easier, just like its easier to complain and bitch, we find comfort in dreaming of the things we don’t have.
I don’t have this perfect, far from it. I do know that it’s hard to turn your back on all the things you want, or the comfort you get by blaming someone or something else for your losing game. The courage is when we choose to look at our life and search for the things that we have, the things we hold in abundance. Money is a classic, we look in our bank accounts or wallets and purses and see all the money we wish we had: the lottery winnings, the better job, the bonuses, the runaway stock tips, all the things that if only for ___________, we could be living large. That’s easy, I challenge you to take another look and see the things you do have. The money, the credit the assets, the ability to make money, those are all abundances. To see them for what they really are we have to turn our backs on our daily rumination about all the things we don’t have, and start accepting that we all hold things in abundance. Not only accept it, celebrate it – maybe a little fist pump or a smile, its a first step.
All it takes is a little courage. We need to gather up our stuff, turn our back on old ways and embrace the new. People often say you should always see the glass half full, I don’t think its that simple. Some trite saying doesn’t fix the problem, it may be the solution, but it isn’t the answer. Abundance isn’t something we’re entitled to, its something we already have. The key is to see it, the more we see it the better we feel about our lives, the better we feel about our lives, the more abundant things become.
-Billy
