Courage is the key to unlocking new capabilities, goals, and achievements. Courage is the very first step to take once you have decided to do something. Courage is stepping into something despite feeling, the risk and the fear. Often times, we lack the ability to be brave and courage lies at the very heart of every success story, every breakthrough and every greatness. Courage is a daily decision to step beyond your comfort zone, to challenge the story you are telling yourself and rewrite your identity as someone who is resilient and unstoppable. Courage does not only inspire your life but the lives of everyone around you. Courage helps you not only to survive life challenges but to ride through them. Greatness is a legacy that lasts beyond our lifetime. But here is the truth: greatness doesn’t arrive by chance, luck or by waiting for a perfect moment.

Greatness is born in the fire of courage. Think about the legends, history makers and the pioneers that we look up to. Every one of them had to face a choice to step into the unknown or to remain safe and small. Decision to be courageous set them apart.

Courage is the invisible force behind every leap of faith. Every bold step forward and every dream chased with relentless passion required courage. Courage is not some rare mystical trait only possessed by the chosen few. No single courage lives inside of anyone of us. It’s that voice that keeps whispering, keeps going when doubt screams the loudest. It is the heartbeat that quickens when you are about to take a risk. Without courage you stay stuck in your comfort zone imprisoned by fear and hesitation. You never discover what you are truly capable of doing because you never push past the boundaries that hold you back. The difference between who you are and who you could be is courage, the willingness to face fear and uncertainty head on. Courage is the ability to walk away from something toxic even though the future is not really clear.

Greatness requires courage because it demands that you be more than what you are right now. It calls you to break through barrier, to challenge the status quo and to keep moving on even when the path is dark and uncertain. In 1 Samuel Chapter 17, David comes to Saul and volunteers to fight Goliath. Saul tells David, “You can’t, you’re only a boy and Goliath has been fighting since he was your age.” Saul looks at David and immediately pinpoints his weaknesses. David is young, too young even to join Saul’s army. David is inexperienced and lacks the training and combat experience that Goliath has. But that did not deter David, rather, he encouraged Saul in this situation: “Don’t let anyone lose heart on account of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:32).

And David’s faith was so strong that he even convinced Saul! Saul told David, “Go, and the Lord be with you” (1 Samuel 17:37). History is written with blood, sweat, and tears, and it is etched into eternity by the quiet endurance of courageous people, Ryan Holiday said. It must be said that greatness is impossible without courage. In history, nothing is written about the cowards. There is no one good thing that did not require a few hard seconds of bravery. So, if you wish to be great, you must first learn how to conquer fear and rise above it in the moments that matter.
• Today’s nugget: Courage is the invisible force. Phone Contact: 07032361509. E-mail: [email protected]. Joel Ejiofor, business coach/strategist