Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Words of Wisdom : Courage




Courage: the ability and willingness to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Physical courage is the courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, death, or threat of death, while moral courage is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement.

Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman’s book Character Strengths and Virtues, defines that there are 6 key virtues that defines a human’s strength; Knowledge and Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence. Courage is broken down into 4 main categories;  Bravery, Perseverance, Honesty, and Zest.

Bravery: the ability to stand up for what is right in difficult situations. Perseverance: the ability to seek a goal in spite of obstacles. Honesty: simply telling the truth. Zest: (or vitality) is the feeling of being alive, full of zest, and displaying enthusiasm.

In my eyes courage can be such a difficult thing to confront when you are faced with it. The ability to stand up for yourself, your beliefs, your family, or whatever it may be; can be such a difficult situation. I have come to the realization in my life, that in the past I rarely stood up for myself when I really wanted to please someone. I let my own feelings sit to the side and I became someone who I didn’t want to be; all because I didn’t have the courage to kick something in the butt at the very beginning. Looking back now, I wish I would have been strong enough to believe in myself and stand my ground. In the end it would of only helped me, put me in a place where I was happy with the decisions I made.

I have made a decision with myself; to have the courage to stand my ground and never back down. Backing down doesn’t mean that I will never come to agreement with someone, and compromise; but it means that I will let my voice be heard. I believe if we all did that, we would all be so much happier.

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