Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. Because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English Author
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other words, in order to call on the full range of what we are capable of we need to go out and truly live. And truly living requires that we move out of our comfort zone... and moving out of our comfort zone requires... courage.
I think I'd like to be remembered as someone who beat the odds through just plain determination. ... that I persevered. Because I think that being somewhat of a pest to life, constantly plaguing and pursuing, will bring results.
Sylvester Stallone (1946-) American Actor
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Again and again, people who have been successful name perseverance - or persistence - as the main ingredient of success. It is often said that a person with average talent but never-ending persistence will beat everybody else simply because, usually, everybody else gives up before they get round to succeeding.
Why do we give up?
I think there are numerous reasons but one of the strongest is the belief that this thing we are trying just won't succeed. As it starts to get a little difficult, or as we find ourselves in a dead end that we can't work our way out of we tell ourselves it isn't possible for it to work out, that the difficulties are intractable, that we don't, after all, really want to do this.
We give ourselves permission to fail. And so fail is what we do.
For me - and maybe for you - the point is to give ourselves permission to succeed against the odds, to persuade ourselves to step out of the comfort zone and to just get on and do it. We need to believe that, if you want something badly enough, you usually can get it. The thing you want might be monumental so the effort required may be monumental also but it's still possible. And if it's possible then, well, maybe you should just do it...
