Courage & Confidence

Courage and confidence. Everyone struggles with these at some point, to some degree, and in some area of life. For me, the foremost has always been socially. I’ve never been very scared in physical aspects like riding a motorcycle or surfing in the open water. The sight of a bike or a perfect wave makes me want to get up and go. But put people before me and I want to run the other way. The mind is a mysterious thing. I am now working on improving this area of my life though, perhaps because I finally realize how vitally important courage and confidence with people are to overall success and joy.

Working on increasing my self-confidence has made me understand how tied confidence is with another attribute: courage. They are interdependent and I have gained an understanding of the fundamental relationship between the two. I think most people view confidence and courage as in “I need to gain confidence or be confident in order for me to have courage or in order for me to take action.” A more common phrasing is when we say to ourselves “I am not ready to do this.” Needing to feel confident before we take action seems like the natural process but it’s actually the other way around. We have to take action in order to build confidence. When we learn to ride a bicycle most of us are scared to do it without the help of the additional two wheels. But we do it because we really want to ride the bike or because we don’t want to be the only kid on the block with training wheels. We fall and get up; we fall and get up. Then one day it no longer scares us—the actions of confidence come first; the feelings of confidence come after. I’ve come to learn that courage and confidence are like a reciprocating wheel: courage begets confidence; confidence begets courage.

Even though courage and confidence are not uniquely American, they were so instrumental to the foundation of our country; so rooted in our founding ideals and values, that they are really the basis of our identity as a country and what makes our country exceptional. Courage and confidence or faith were the guiding force for the men and women who crossed the Atlantic to start a new life in a completely foreign land and to brave the frontier. The Founding Fathers and all the patriots who risked and gave their lives are the embodiment of courage and confidence. They are what paved the way to establish this country, unlike any other, on the basis of valuing the individual as being worthy of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” They are what gave strength to individuals like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison to persevere and prosper. Courage and confidence are inherent to American Individualism.

The more I strive to build courage and confidence, the more I realize how instrumental they are to pretty much an endeavor in life. They are attributes of the human spirit that I believe the founders of our country intuitively knew.