Courage: What do you need it for and how do you get it?

How much courage do you have to do the right thing? Being courageous is something that doesn't seem very important in these peaceful times, but it is precisely in peace that courage is needed. After all, life for everyone is a struggle between doing the right thing and doing the easiest thing. After all, sometimes the easiest thing is not the right thing, or the best thing, and then you need courage to do what is right

What is courage?

According to Wikipedia, courage is "the willingness to confront and endure physical pain, adversity and life threats, uncertainty, fear and intimidation."[1]

Courage can be used in 2 ways, mental courage and physical courage. For example, someone who does martial arts is courageous because he uses his live body to get the best out of himself physically (and mentally). This physical courage is also needed by soldiers, for example, especially when they find themselves in a dire situation.

Mental courage is something you encounter more often in everyday life. It takes courage to tackle a relationship crisis, because it can be much easier to end the relationship and find someone who’s easier to get along with. Especially at a young age, a partner who is terminally ill can cause you to run away cowardly because you don’t yet have the life experience to stand by that person until the end.

Why do you need courage?

In life, you encounter all kinds of problems. If you see yourself primarily as a victim and are unwilling to do much about it, this is also a sign that you lack the courage to take matters into your own hands. This is a real shame because in every life, you lose loved ones, you may become seriously ill at some point, and you’ll face ethical dilemmas.

A few examples:

Courage and Fear

Overcoming fears takes courage. You simply do what you have to do and endure the tension in your body and the urge to run away. Hypnosis also helps keep fear under control, making it easier to get through that moment of fear, whatever it may be.

Sometimes, fear can also arise during a situation that lasts a bit longer. For example, when a loved one is chronically ill. That’s when the ethical question arises: do you want an easy life, or a life in which you support the other person in their difficult battle against the illness? Courage is especially important at times like these, because in the long run, you may come to regret a decision made when your courage failed you.

Courage to do what is right

Not only in illness does it take courage to do what is right. Especially at work, courage is needed for this. Did you know that courageous behavior at work is more often the exception than the norm?[2]

This is often the case, for example, when there is a culture of fear in a company. Something is not going well, but no one dares to say anything about it for fear of losing his/her job. While good morale at work can actually make people want to work with your organization.

How do you get more courage?

So courage is necessary to get through difficult times and moments on multiple fronts in your life. Therefore, having a healthy dose of courage is helpful. Therefore, some tips and recommendations for finding more courage.

Self-control and courage

Being brave means doing brave things. Doing something means you’re consciously engaging in your behavior. To do something consciously, you must be able to manage the emotions associated with a brave act, such as overcoming a fear or the stress and tension that come with doing the right thing in a difficult situation.

In addition, you must also believe in your own ability. You must believe in that you are capable of taking the bold action. For example, to challenge your supervisor when he/she is acting unethically.

Dealing with emotions and strengthening one's belief in one's own abilities can be improved with hypnosis. Especially a guided visualization works well for this because in a visualization the feelings also come to the surface and you then learn directly how to deal with them. This also strengthens the feeling that you can handle the moral moment, which increases the chance that you will also perform courageous behavior.

Social influence

Humans are group animals and therefore you also have to deal with the norms of those around you. If you come from a moral family, you will probably be braver at home than at work when mostly immoral behavior is the norm there.

Therefore, try to gather people around you who are courageous. Make courageous behavior negotiable and find ways to reinforce ethical behavior. Anonymous reporting can be very beneficial to improve ethics in the workplace, because the "snitch" cannot be punished for pointing out unethical behavior.

Find other work if necessary if you are really completely disturbed by the scams at work.

In your personal life, you can more easily choose who you hang out with. If you find that people often lack courage, you can see if you can interact more often with people who are courageous, this will strengthen your own courage.

Proprietary standards

Your own standards also matter for courage. Who do you want to be, what kind of person do you want to be? How do you want people to view you?

Your behavior is often consistent with the answers to these questions. If you've come to this blog by looking up courage on the Internet, I can imagine you're faced with a dilemma and want to know how to handle it. So what behaviors are in line with how you want to be and how you want other people to see you?

Your desired identity is therefore important for demonstrating courage. In this context, it might be interesting to know that the opposite of courage is cowardice. Do you want to be seen as a coward? I assume not, and so courageous behavior is necessary for a positive identity.

To encourage courageous behavior, you can also receive hypnotic suggestions to reinforce beliefs that promote courageous behavior. You can repeat these suggestions at home or listen to them (if you have an MP3) during self-hypnosis. Depending on your beliefs about courage, they might take the following form.

"Courageous behavior is rewarded sooner or later."

"Courageous behavior means not going straight to a journalist, but finding a solution internally."

"Being courageous can only be done in exciting or anxious moments," says Dr. K. K., a professor of hypnosis.

"Doing the right thing is not always doing the easiest thing."

"You can look at yourself in the mirror if you're courageous," he says.

These are just examples, depending on your beliefs about courage you may get other suggestions for more courage.

Punishment and reward

Your ideas about punishment and reward for your courageous act are also important for performing your courageous act. The reason why there is a culture of fear at many companies is because people are afraid of losing their jobs when they talk about ethical issues or at least cannot continue to grow.

So perhaps you should consider for yourself whether you want to work for such a company.

For example, an acquaintance of mine once had a job as a waiter, for 1 day. That first day, he was quite finessed for doing all kinds of things wrong, but this was also the first time he had done this kind of work. He felt that explaining for a while would go better, but that didn't happen. After a few hours he was fed up and said this was not going to be him. This was not how he wanted to be treated and he went home. During the week he found out that after him all the staff in the serving area had resigned. Apparently he was the first one brave enough not to take it. So choosing ethics and good treatment can also be contagious which does require a culture change for a company to survive.

So double check what consequences your courageous behavior can have for you personally. What is the worst that can happen right now and what can you do about it? Maybe it won't be all that bad.

So being courageous is necessary in many areas of your life. Your life will have difficult moments, and courage is needed in those very moments. Hypnosis can help build your courage in multiple ways so that you can look at yourself in the mirror every day.

Would you like to know how hypnosis can help you or others? Then come to a hypnosis workshop or take one of the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands. These are also available online; please contact us for more information.

[1] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moed

[2] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2007.00484.x