“Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?”- George R. R. Martin

You don’t get gold medals for being timid; you get gold medals for being brave, for being courageous. Stop waiting for the perfect time to reinvent yourself. Yes, it takes courage to leave where you are. But without courage, you are not going anywhere. If you want to be successful, courage is the way. Seneca once said, “Courage leads to heaven; fear, to death.” If you want to go to heaven, you must develop the courage to live your life. And to do that, let us explore the following ways:

Learn more about yourself

To know what you want, you must first know what you do not want. To face your future, you must learn more about yourself. You must know what your weaknesses and strengths are. You must be brave. John Updike said, “You cannot help but learn more as you take the world into your hands. Take it up reverently, for it is an old piece of clay, with millions of thumbprints on it.” You can never know how courageous you are until you have faced something terrible. And if you can face it, you will succeed.

“Dedicate yourself to your dream”

“So be encouraged and dedicate yourself to your dream and if your dream should come my way one day then we will dance upon the boards of life.”- Ben Vereen

Francois de La Rochenfoucauld once said, “We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.” You can find the courage to live your life if you are brave enough to dedicate your life, yourself to your dream. Because you cannot get what you want without dedicating your life to it. So if you want your dream to happen, you must dedicate yourself to it.

“Admit to yourself your own errors”

It is hard to admit our own errors. But it is the best way to learn from our mistakes. If you cannot admit your own errors to yourself, then you are not going to be able to learn from your failures. It is painful, but doable. According to Ludwig Van Beethoven, “Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.” It is okay to make mistakes. When you make a mistake, do not hide it, reveal it. Let other people know about it. It is hard, but you can do it.

Do not fear change

Whether you like change or not, it is here to stay. Change is not going anywhere. So if you don’t want to be left behind, you must embrace change. Do not fight change, embrace it. If you do, peace and growth will follow you. Alan Watts said, “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”