{"id":225,"date":"2019-07-17T09:11:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T09:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/?p=225"},"modified":"2022-06-29T11:52:33","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T11:52:33","slug":"being-brave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/being-brave\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Brave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/colinear.co\/2019\/07\/17\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When people would hear that I had left family and friends in Jamaica to move back to London (ages ago), they would say how brave that was. I\u2019ve never really looked at it that way and at various points along the way I would have called it something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the forefront of my mind, at that time, was the fear of being stagnant in my career, or not progressing toward anything. I couldn\u2019t see a future that would be interesting or exciting \u2013 it felt like I would remain the same. I have since realised that I also get bored easily, which probably added to it all. The time spent in the hospitality industry in Jamaica was amazing and I learned a lot, however I knew I\u2019d reached the point where I had to change; so if this was bravery, I was ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bravery and courage are hot topics with many at the moment and it is important that we pay attention and adapt some of what is being shared. I believe we all have the capacity to act on what we think is impossible or difficult. Thinking on my big move, I wondered what drives us to step up, act beyond our fears and be brave? I know it will be different for everyone, but these resonate with me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The prospect of what will or won\u2019t happen if we do nothing<\/li><li>The determination to overcome a challenge<\/li><li>A sense of responsibility<\/li><li>Passion to make an impact<\/li><li>A desire to change or see change<\/li><li>Protecting something or someone we care about<\/li><li>A desire to experience something new or overcome an obstacle preventing you from moving forward.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many more I could include, but the point is sometimes understanding \u2018why\u2019 is the first step towards being brave, having courage or being confident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What I did all those years ago wasn\u2019t easy \u2013 it took a lot of energy to take the risk and resign from my job, book the ticket and make all the preparations to go. I believe a couple of the attributes needed to be brave are to be definite and intentional. I was convinced this was the right thing to do and doubt anyone or anything could have changed my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To help us to be definite and intentional, and to support following through on being brave, here are a few thoughts and ideas based on my own experience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Stop comparisons and shut down negative chatter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is always a pressure for us to perform \u2013 to be as good as, or better than colleagues, peers or even family members. We compare ourselves to others, which is always a strategy that will break confidence and kill courage. It is important to remember that we can\u2019t face someone else\u2019s fear or challenge \u2013 we have to face our own and in our own way. A practical thing I do is to walk away \u2013 shut down the noise or negative thoughts etc., and get around some trees to think. Space allows us to get perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Be guided by your values to make good decisions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Living our values by acting on what\u2019s important to us as individuals enables us to be definite and intentional. By being true to our beliefs, we will naturally come across as confident, when we uphold personal values, we begin to make better choices \u2013 the ones we can stand by. Oftentimes the reason why we hesitate to act bravely is that we doubt that we will get it right. Before we bale out, remember \u2013 the direction or decision taken might not be right for everyone else, but if we are guided by our values, it will be right for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cYour time is limited, so don\u2019t waste it living someone else\u2019s life.<br>Don\u2019t be trapped by dogma \u2013 which is living with the results of other people\u2019s thinking.<br><\/em><em>Don\u2019t let the noise of others\u2019 opinions drown out your own inner voice.<br>And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.\u201d Steve Jobs<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t be put off when it\u2019s hard \u2013 don\u2019t give up!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Understand that things don\u2019t always work out. When I first arrived back in the UK I thought that things would come together because I had a plan. It didn\u2019t work out the way I\u2019d planned it at all. Things were harder than I thought, at the time I was lacking UK work experience, despite having a good knowledge and experience of the industry. Being resilient meant digging deep and deciding that despite the challenges it was time to reset and plan, rather than be overcome by disappointment. Thinking back, it\u2019s one of the things that led to a change of career to work in the communication industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cYou gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really<\/em><br><em>stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself\u2026\u201d Eleanor Roosevelt<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t forget to remember<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other day someone played back to me something I\u2019d done and I was surprised that I had totally forgotten that I\u2019d stepped out in that way. It made me think how important it is to think about and remember the times when we have done something that would be considered brave, courageous or confident. Remembering actually encouraged me that I could be brave again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve since done other things that would be considered as being brave, like starting a business, but more recently, I was coerced to walk over the Capilano Suspension Bridge in Vancouver. This is something I would never normally do. Even though my friends were encouraging me \u2013 something was also going on inside \u2013 I actually wanted to overcome the fear, be brave and cross that bridge. Needless to say, I did it and I\u2019m still here, enjoying the feeling that comes when you work through something that\u2019s really scary and complete it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When people would hear that I had left family and friends in Jamaica to move back to London (ages ago), they would say how brave that was. I\u2019ve never really looked at it that way and at various points along the way I would have called it something else. At the forefront of my mind, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1089,"href":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/1089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colinear.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}