Courage: Doing Things We Think We Cannot Do

How do we define courage? Some say it is the lack of fear. For me however, it is deciding to confront fear and everything that goes with it like uncertainty, intimidation, pain, and danger. Most of the fear we encounter in life though will not require us to go through physical pain and danger but will never the less put us in a similar struggle with our emotions and will power.

Original Photo by: hotblack

Courage

When we do things we are good at, it does not require extraordinary courage from us. In fact, we actually enjoy doing them, confident of our ability to perform well. Having to do what we think we cannot do is entirely a different thing.

It awakens real fear, not imagined as some are wont to dismiss them. For the person face to face with such fear, nothing can be more real. One starts to question why one needs to go through it. For those who do not expect to have adverse effects in not doing it, it is a lot easier to look the other way and not do it. For those who do not have such luxury, it can be a fight to the finish.

A Personal Test of Courage

My decision to go back to work brought me face-to-face with one real fear of mine – technology. I have never been a techie person and I have to admit that I survived the techie side of blogging and writing largely because my eldest daughter who is located overseas did everything for me but write my articles. For other assistance, there was my husband and my two younger children who all took to technology like fish did to water.

For the longest time , I held on to writing on paper instead of straight on the computer keyboard, using a typewriter  instead of a laptop. My mind literally clammed-up whenever I had to perform a techie task. For all intents and purposes, I looked like a remnant from the past when it comes to the use of technology.

Apparently, fate had something else in store for me. I had to go back to work after being “retired” by choice for many years. In this time and age, I realized that there was no work available for me wherein I could avoid technology. It was everywhere, seemingly taunting me. I had no choice but to learn it or else…

My Say

I have always enjoyed learning but the job training I went through for almost two months left me drained emotionally. This was specifically towards the latter part where learning the techie tasks was the primary goal. My emotions were constantly seesawing from failure to triumph.

It was a good thing that I had patient trainers who encouraged me to go on. I was almost sure that I’d be out walking the moment they told me otherwise. I got my Certificate of Completion for the training course yesterday. Tomorrow, I start another phase in actual application of everything that I have learned. Am I scared? Deathly scared to say the least!

Am I backing out? Definitely not! I choose to tap on my inner courage to do this thing I thought I cannot do.

I had trainers who believed enough in me to give me a passing mark. I have my family and their well-being as my strongest motivation. I have my faith to quiet my doubts. I will do this even if I initially thought it was something I cannot do. I will never really know unless I try. And when I have given my best, I find myself falling short, there will be no regrets. Whatever happens, learning is never wasted. It will be forever mine to use at will.