What my son taught me about courage

As a mother I know that from the day a baby is born, we as parents want to do everything we can to protect them. When they are happy, we are happy. When they cry, we are in pain.

But as the saying goes: "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man HOW to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". We cannot protect our children all the time and from everything, so we must help develop their abilities and creativity so they can overcome any challenge they may encounter.

Ok, so how does this relate to courage?

Courage is the ability to deal with uncertainty, fear, threat or pain.

In order to overcome a challenge, we must be brave enough to deal with it in the first place.

And when you think about it for a while, you will realise that the challenge is not external at all – it's internal.

That fear, uncertainty, the perception of threat and concern that you may get hurt – all start inside our heads, because we never know for 100% what is going to happen.

Courage is the understanding that if we do nothing – it will hurt us a lot more (emotionally or physically). This is the reason that when people are asked what their biggest regret is, most of them answer: "That I didn't do X…"!

So back to my son, what did he teach me about courage?

To educate our children, we must set the example of what we want them to learn. They copy us. School can pack them with information, but they learn to be humans at home.

If we want to teach our children to take advantage of opportunities and live without regrets, we first have to learn to do these ourselves. And when we demonstrate courage to them, we are really showing them the first step in accomplishing their (and our!) dreams, because they stop being dreams and become goals!

You don't have to start by dancing in the street, this is not what I'm talking about.

Small acts of courage can build your confidence, like wearing a top in a colour you never dared to before, making your opinion known in front of a small group of friends, saying 'yes' to something you would have said no to in the past because you were too afraid... these are all ways to practice courage.

And once you start, who knows where you will end up?

So what have you done today to make you feel courageous?

Have a great day,

Inbal