Bravery sucks

Hello dear reader!

Today I want to talk a bit about being brave.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you may have gathered that I tend to struggle with a lot of negative emotions. What human doesn’t? But I’m also incredibly stubborn. And dang it, I have things I want to accomplish.

We tend to glorify courage and bravery. However, something I think that often gets overlooked is that… well… to put it bluntly bravery sucks. To have courage, or to be brave, that means you first must be scared. Courage is working through that fear and doing the thing anyway.

Let me tell you, when you’re in the middle of having to be brave, it doesn’t feel glorious and magnificent and grand. It fricken sucks. You’re anxious, you’re likely doubting yourself, you’re questioning if what you’re going through is worth it, you feel like quitting and giving up, you’re forging ahead into the unknown and it’s lonely and big and scary. The feelings that accompany bravery and courage are miserable. They can make you feel physically ill and/or emotionally distraught. (I’m a nervous puker myself. Fun fact, I had to take a break when I was getting my ISBNs and uploading my first book to Amazon so I could go throw up.)

It’s not a fun experience. Frankly, it’s downright shitty at times.

But.

You can’t go do all those marvelous things you dream about unless you push through all that discomfort and self-doubt and uncertainty and keep going. “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” — Jack Canfield.

You. Yes, you. Don’t let all the miserable feelings that come with being brave stop you. Don’t give up. Don’t stop. Don’t quit. Keep going. I believe in you. It’s going to be hard. And scary. And miserable. But you can do it. You’ve got it in you to succeed.

Bravery looks like all kinds of things. It’s not always slaying monsters and climbing mountain faces and sailing savage seas. Sure those things also take courage. But there are all kinds of other small ways you can be brave. Sometimes bravery looks like getting out of bed in the morning. Sometimes it looks like going to work. Sometimes it looks like saying hello to a stranger and starting up a conversation. Sometimes it looks like writing the first lines of a book you want to write. Sometimes it looks like sharing your art or writing on the internet. Sometimes it looks like opening up about your feelings to a friend. All those little things can be victories. And those victories need to be celebrated. My mentor says “CELEBRATE TO INTEGRATE!”

My follow-up point is, things don’t just get magically easier the more you do them. They’re still scary. You may still feel awful in the middle of them. Sure, they can get less intimidating and less anxiety-provoking the more times you do them. But really, you’ve just gotten better at handling all the feels that accompany being brave. The world didn’t change. You just leveled up.

You’ve got this, dear reader. You can do whatever you put your mind to. Don’t let anything stop you.

Till next time, get out there and chase your dreams, and know that I’m rooting for you. <3 Tiff