How to Capture Courage and Go After Your Biggest Dreams
Capturing Courage
What do you do when the life you’ve been living asks for something more from you?
Something that you feel you are meant for, destined to achieve, but have not a clue how to actually manifest in your reality? Or maybe you find yourself in a situation where following the current status quo isn’t in alignment with your values, and you know it’s time to break the mold of mediocrity and allow yourself to claim your unique frequency.
The unknown beckons, requiring only for you to tap into the primal courage inside of you to unleash the next level of your potentiality.
What comes to mind when you hear the word courage?
Is it a mix of being in the presence of a majestic male lion overlooking his pride with ease in his unquestionable command and thickening cold sweats beading up on your forehead heaving into a paper bag type of situation?
Courageousness contains a fierce paradox right in the meaning of the word.
“Courage: the ability to do something that frightens one”
How powerful is that?
Terror met with and conquered by, propensity.
A position we find ourselves in over and over again, especially us thrill-seeking, change-making creators.
So naturally, that gives us a powerful opportunity. A chance to tame the beast. And by taming I mean mastering the art of embodying that fierceness with the same relaxation of our beloved animal totem. Because as Guru Jagat says, "The most relaxed person in the room is the most successful person in the room."
Courage is the feeling we ride into the next version of ourselves. It shows up before we’ve made the leap, perfected the thing, or know how our radical opinions will rock the boat.
How do we grab onto that majestic essence of bravery and master it with skill?
Courage begins with a spark. A twinkly light highlighting the same area of your attention over and over again (think check engine light).
A building force limelighting your unattended thoughts.
It lures your heart to open with its fervent energy.
It inhabits your body like a mason jar of jubilant fireflies. Often horribly uncomfortable and equally motivating; a CTA (call-to-action) like no other.
Is anything truly exciting if not symmetrically terrifying?
Courage has been summoned.
Once it has arrived we can use this grit-evoking spirit to transform the situation in front of us.
Let’s answer the call.
The call that will change your life, release the FOMO, and live in the now by building a life of integrity. You’ve only got one life and the time is precious.
Living courageously means following the nudges of your higher self and reaping the rewards of the road less traveled, the path unpaved. But mostly it lets you sleep at night with the satisfaction that you invested in yourself by being just that.
Steps to Capturing Courage:
STEP 1: Lay the Foundation by asking yourself: "What do I want to have a bigger experience of?"
Decide that.
Go wide, go tall, go ethereal with this. Think why am I here?
For me, it takes the form of freedom and love. Freedom from restraints of any kind (those that feel personally limiting) and space for love to flow, for me to show up as love.
For you, it could be that as well, or whatever sirens your soul: fun, beauty, joy, fortitude, healing, adventure...
It's a profoundly deep but also incredibly simple directive.
Use that answer as the compass for your courageous action.
I come back to this guidepost daily, what is it that I am amplifying? Is it freedom and love? No, ok get in there and hack the system because that is what I'm committed to.
STEP 2: Conduct a Renovation of your Beliefs
You are in your current situation because somewhere in your subconscious mind your belief about the situation, particularly your attendance in it, is a match to it.
Bring in the construction crew on those crusty conceptions. Demo, revitalize, and rebuild with this three-part formula:
Energize your system to allow for the restructuring of the belief.
In order to make changes to the neural structure of your brain as well as facets of your energetic makeup, you will need fuel. Fuel in the form of more energy. Meditate, do yoga, and move your physical body to strengthen your system and increase the prana in your field.
My drug of choice: Kundalini Yoga. It is an incredibly effective technology to do this.
2. Demo your current belief
That belief, or lack of belief, has kept you on the side of the fence you currently reside. If courage has made itself known, there is more for you. What you desire also desires you.
So acknowledge the current belief and then knock it down.
Stop identifying with it. Just demolish it.
It's time to set the slate clean.
3. Build a new belief in its place
Create a belief that aligns with what you decided you wanted to have a bigger experience of (Step 1) and work to hold it. Lay the foundation in your mind and repeat it constantly. Let it be glued down, nailed in, and trimmed up. Reconstruct your mental field.
Walking through this process for me recently looked like being faced with a courage capturing opportunity and wanting to have a bigger experience of freedom and love.
My existing belief sounded like this:
"I need to make a change to my current situation and I can't figure out what I am supposed to do next. I don't want to give up anything and I'm not sure how to restructure my life to show up for all the things that are trying to enter in addition to what I have going on."
After deconstruction my aligned belief came through as:
"The full expression of my desires requires the full expression of myself."
(Steps 1 and 2 are inspired from a powerful lecture and kundalini yoga class by Guru Jagat titled "Call of Courage", dated April 18, 2017. This is a virtual class available to RAMA Institute Members.)
STEP 3: Set Goals
Anchor your desired result into reality by creating a plan. Write down the major components of your desired outcome as bold headlines.
We all know this is the part of the composition that actually moves the needle. You can show up with aligned action when you know what your end game is.
Break this down into two parts:
A. Determine the importance of your goal.
Invert the situation.
Ask yourself just how paramount it is that you achieve your goals? What will happen if you don't answer the call of courage?
Does the situation require an immediate reroute or a more subtle detour?
When the situation demands taking a stand for something out of integrity with our morals and values, courageous action is the antidote.
B. Take constructive risks
Now that you have your goals prioritized you can assess the risk level.
When considering your impending courageous action, who will benefit? Who will suffer? Is there a way to minimize any negative impact and amplify a best-case scenario for all involved?
Develop a cohesion between the risk level and the importance of your goal. Arm yourself with knowledge and intuitive timing to execute your plan with grace.
STEP 4: Develop contingency plans
Capturing courage as a skill requires that you step into the unknown. This decision will demand a new version of yourself; to think differently, act differently, and be different. Your identity upgraded.
You are now very solid on your values, goals, and your plan.
This is your opportunity to stay versatile.
Be resourceful by proactively determining alternative routes. Lay them out.
This will give you the confidence you need to successfully take a bold risk. Accounting for failure is not projecting a negative reality. It is akin to bringing the proper gear to easily survive a night in the car when traversing a high snow terrain to get to your driving destination. It is packing your essentials backpack so a small need during the journey does not have a chance to become a red alert on your air tank.
The more solid your backup plans, the greater the chance that you won't need them.
Consider this poignant example, from a brilliant article on courage in business by Kathleen K. Reardon.
STEP 5: Have a deep sense of self-esteem
Now comes the work of the warrior.
You are headed somewhere you haven't been. And likely putting yourself into a high-risk situation with a sense of identity that hasn't been lived in yet. It's minimal at best, with no comforting nostalgia to remind you who you are.
So you must go deeper.
Come into your heart and love yourself thoroughly. Before the world will be receptive to your courageous action you will need to be tethered to the truth of your heart.
When your contribution to your reality comes from this generator you won't be led astray. You will make it through to the other side. Every time you tire you will return to this place and it will beam your energy forward. This is your inherent power to activate, and upon nurturance, it will take you where ever you need to go.
Your unique imprint is a creative solution derived from a reverence for self-sovereignty.
STEP 6: Accept your position as the writer of your own creative manifesto
Embody your "onlyness" factor and use it.
Your reality is yours by design.
What you have to contribute is important.
Enroll as the student in the course: Architecture of Destiny. Your life is your responsibility, that is the pressure and the sheer magnificence of life on this planet.
You choose.
You create.
You can bring your frequency to the table because its one of a kind and an essential piece of the collective humanity.
You can leap, guide, direct, and produce with a connection to your unique essence.
Your innate value is gifted to the world through your authentic expression.
Power move, 100%.
All Set
:
Big leaps in our lives feel insurmountable when the change is massive and undefined. As soon as we break it down into manageable chunks that our ego can assign tasks to complete, following the call of courage begins to feel like the next logical step.
Putting it all together:
STEP 1: Lay the Foundation for your experience
STEP 2: Conduct a Renovation of your Beliefs
STEP 3: Set Goals
STEP 4: Develop contingency plans
STEP 5: Have a deep sense of self-esteem
STEP 6: Accept your position as the writer of your own creative manifesto
The space between where you are and where you are going will be made interesting with many windy twists, wandering turns, and weathering challenges foreseen and unknown.
Accept the royal invitation to grow.
Take these practical steps to capture courage when it shows up in your experience.
Enjoy each life defining moment of this enactment and watch as the next version of your path unfolds.
“It’s not the life that matters but the courage you bring to it!”
Courage hovering on your doorstep? Where are you taking the leap?
Leave a comment below.
Kelly Johns
Writer + Artist + Yogi on a mission to inspire & uplift.
