What Brave Is Not

Thank you for joining me for day 2.

Sometimes I think I need to figure out what something isn’t before I can know what it really is. Make sense? (I’m imagining nods in agreement.)

So…what is brave not?

Brave is not fearless.

If we wait until we don’t feel afraid, we’ll stay stuck and do nothing. And that nothing becomes so comfortable. And safe. There is no bravery in that.

Living bravely is choosing to do that thing – whatever that is for you – and then taking a step, a teeny, tiny step forward. We’ll be talking about that first step tomorrow. But for now, please know that without a little (or a lot of!) fear, there is no place for brave.

I used to be the queen of fear. I wore the crown well. Secretly, but well. It was my security blanket. My comfort place to go to when I didn’t want to step out and do something new. Part of me longed to do the brave thing, but usually fear won.

Until several years ago when I attended a women’s event by myself. Yes, all by myself. At the time I was scared to death, but looking back it seems like a pretty brave step. At one point the speaker said, “Want to be brave? Are you scared? Do the thing afraid! Do the thing afraid!”

The light bulbs started going off in my head. Waves of understanding rushed over my heart. Brave does not mean fearless. Brave is doing the thing afraid.

I had been waiting forever for the fear to leave, but how could it when I was treating it like royalty and giving it such a high place of honor in my life? Over the course of that weekend, I decided to lay down my crown of fear. I went from being the queen of fear to a recovering fear girl. Recovering because each day, each moment requires me to make a choice. Living bravely or living fearfully.

Do you have your own brave is not statement? I’d love to hear it. Please share.

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