Where to Look for Courage

Which would you rather do?

• Be alone with your thoughts?

• Give yourself an electric shock?


No brainer, right? Obviously: thinking, right? Well, consider that choice more deeply. You may realize you're no different than hundreds of study participants who gave themselves shocks.



Professors at University of Virginia recently published their findings of an experiment:

• They asked 409 college students to be alone with their thoughts in a bare room for (only!) 6 to 15 minutes: no phones or distractions of any kind

• In one part of the experiment, 67% of the men and 25% of the women chose to give themselves a mild electric jolt — like a little static electricity shock — rather than complete the entire thinking period



Putting aside your initial reactions... (like: What that men-to-women ratio reveals! Or... Those darn ADD kids!)... Dig deeper into being honest about how much introspection time you give yourself, and the quality and depth of that introspection. Your honest evaluation is key to your courage and success. Because...






One of the biggest sources of personal success and courage comes from introspection.
Both common wisdom as well as formal research bears this out. e.g.: The foundation of most Center for Creative Leadership's programs is based on deep reflection and introspection. 12 Quiet Rituals of Enormously Successful Humans is how one extremely popular happiness/productivity blog promotes personal reflection. 




The place to search for all the courage you will ever need is within you.

Within your experiences.

Within your hard-won wisdom.

Within your failures.

Within your values.

Within your passions. Within your dreams.


Even if you don't believe me... or CCL... or gazillions of leadership development coaches... or all the research... You can't deny it from the God of all songwriters, Bob Dylan!



The always-amazing Brain Pickings blog by Maria Popova just covered Bob Dylan on...How to Create the Perfect Environment for Creative Work. Among his insights:

...Put yourself in an environment where you can completely accept all the unconscious stuff that comes to you from your inner workings of your mind. And block yourself off to where you can control it all, take it down…The environment has to bring something out in me that wants to be brought out. It’s a contemplative, reflective thing…




Accept all that comes to you from your inner workings.

All the courage you will ever need is within you.

You are enough.

You needn't look elsewhere.


Put down your phone (an electric shock device that's more addictive than jolting) and all the other distractions... and just be with yourself. Hear the heartbeat of your own wisdom and courage. Discover it anew. Then roar with it, ready for anything!