by Michele DeMarco Award-winning writer, therapist, clinical ethicist, and researcher specializing in moral injury
“Courage is found in the quiet moment between stimulus and response, and only when we keep ourselves in a grounded, intentional place of confidence and choice by metabolizing fear.”
Dr Cathy Lassiter, EdD, writing to her own expertise in education suggests something about everyday courage, broken down over four categories, that could apply in a much larger context for all of us.
"Everyday courage is not about heroes or heroism. Rather, it is about the grit and determination necessary to make tough calls ... It is about facing the daily leadership challenges with a willful spirit to support the ideals of equity, excellence and inclusion...even when it is not easy or convenient. "
Dusty Staub's TEDx talk outlines the 7 daily acts of courage that, when performed seriously, can free people of their most troubling lacks. Dusty tells the story of how he lived these acts of courage in his relationship with his father (to whom, in youth, he had built a wall of resistance founded in fear of disappointment), and not only achieved the relationship he dreamed of, but became the man he wanted to be.
How to Find and Practice Courage
Leadership expert, coach, and psychologist Manfred Kets de Vries explains that what makes a person courageous is a combination of genetic predisposition, acquired psychological characteristics, social norms, and the context of the decision requiring courage.
He argues that courageous behavior, in which the person chooses a course of action that involves accepting risk in order to protect or benefit others, is learnable and offers a number of techniques that he has found effective in helping people find their courage.
