What is courage and can I order it online?

Courage means ‘of the heart’. It is not something you are born with, it is something you learn and practice. Unfortunately, many people think courage means not feeling fear even in the face of danger. Then the rest of us feel judged and defeated because no-one can do this.

No-one.

Here’s the bottom line of these three posts on courage: you practice courage while you feel the fear. That’s what the science shows. As humans, we need courage to balance rather than overcome fear to do what is needed.

Welcome to these three posts on courage. Here we describe what courage is and why we need it in our lives. Post 2 presents the science of how courage works in the brain. Post 3 gives you practical steps to applying the science to your life to make courage a reality. Then, you can do what you feel you need to do for a good outcome.

The story is told of a group of mice that live in barn. They had a fine life: plenty of food, sunshine, and they hit the hay whenever they wanted. They had one large problem: a farm cat who appeared quietly out of nowhere to pounce and prey on them. To improve their lives, and even just to stay alive, a wise old mouse advised them that some mouse needs to put a bell on the cat. But which mouse had the courage to do that?

Silence.

We tend to think that a lion has courage. Many kings, queens and royal families have taken on the symbol of a lion to show strength and superiority, but it is actually mice and rabbits that need courage, not lions. A lion has strength and fearlessness because it is almost invincible. When you have no predators, you don’t need courage. Courage and bravery are needed when you feel weak and vulnerable, not strong and secure. That means that you and I are going to need courage in our lives.

What is courage?

Courage, as we have seen, is not a lion’s strength or fearlessness. It is not being heroic or having a strong body. It is not something you are born with. In Disney’s Hercules, Hercules is strong, but he only becomes courageous when he makes right choices in his life. Courage is a choice, and making right choices involves giving up something easier and more comfortable. At the crossroads, we need to choose between pleasure and virtue, pain or panic. We need to keep our heads together and not let fear overwhelm us. For us, and for Hercules, we need to learn to be courageous; to balance fear with courage to give us choice.

Courage is an emotion, a mind-state, an attitude. No formal definition encapsulates it precisely. If we can’t define it, we can’t understand it, and that’s been the situation for thousands of years. As humans, we are vulnerable, not only to death and pain, but to each other’s judgment and rejection. We need courage, because of our vulnerability, just like mice and rabbits.

To articulate something consistent with the studies and neuroscience of the next post, and to help you have courage in your life, I’ll share with you what I consider to be the all-time most useful definitions of courage.[i]

Courage is the ability to remember what is worth prizing and what is worth fearing (Plato).

Courage is right action, with confidence, in situations of fear; it is the golden mean between cowardice and foolhardiness (Aristotle).

Courage is opposing pressure to remain faithful to ideals and to yourself (H. Kohut).

Courage is the capacity to rise to the occasion (M. Seligman).

Courage = Feeling Fear + Acting right + having a higher purpose (N.H. Gould).

Notice that these definitions acknowledge that fear is part of the courage equation. We feel fear because of our vulnerability. So, if you feel fear, you now have the opportunity to choose courageous action in spite of that fear. That is why Ancient Greek philosophers considered courage to be a cardinal virtue (along with temperance, wisdom and justice). In psychology, courage is acting for good despite fear and threats. In science it is seen as only one possible response to fear (one you can learn and practice). In my clinical work with military people battling PTSD, I came to understand that all these brave people felt fear in battle. They knew they were vulnerable to death and injury, yet they did what was needed to be done. They sacrificed for a higher cause.

Based on my clinical experience then, my definition of courage becomes this:

In spite of feeling fearful and vulnerable, courage is choosing to act to enable a good or noble outcome.

Why is it good to have courage?

You can get by in life without courage, but you’ll be missing out on most of good stuff life has to offer and on the things you actually want, We think that courage is needed to be a hero, but courage is needed just to get any good outcome: rescuing a drowning child, sitting an exam to pass out of a subject, asking a person out on a date or just for a coffee to get to know them, marketing an idea, asking for a raise, keeping boundaries to people who hurt you. For many people I have worked with in mental health, it takes courage just for them to be alive. And I see them choose that courage every day. Good choice; in spite of fear, they are being noble and courageous.

You may get the chance to be a hero, you may not. But if you want to get anything done in this life, achieve your goals, or obtain your desires, you will need to do it in the face of your fears and vulnerability. This is courage, to do things in spite of fear for a higher ideal: staying alive, letting good flourish, expressing your ideas, or putting a bell on a cat so that others are safe. Just ask the rabbits and mice.

Do you feel fearful and vulnerable? Congratulations, that tells me you are human and you are alive. In your humanity, and I in mine, we can choose courage, then learn it and practice it. Next post we consider how courage works in the brain, the neural-networks, and then we will see how to have courage in your life.

Cheers

Dr Christian Heim

PS Courage cannot be ordered online.

[i] Rate, Christopher R., et al. "Implicit theories of courage." The Journal of Positive Psychology 2.2 (2007): 80-98.