By C.Reed Weber

What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done? You may be thinking sky diving or hang gliding, but you might want to think in a different direction. Think about incidents in your life when you did something despite being afraid of what would happen. Maybe you spoke up in defense of someone or took responsibility for an accident. Being brave, having courage, is not about being fearless, but about understanding the consequences and still going forward.

Growing older and becoming more settled in your life can make it more difficult to break away and make changes. This is true even if the change is positive, will benefit you, and you want to.  It takes determination to make a change in your routine, but it takes courage to make a significant change in your life … courage to let go of what you’ve known and let yourself experience something new.

But things rarely change overnight. Change generally happens over time, which is a good thing for those of us who are not ready. We have time to work ourselves up to it, letting go of the old ways and transitioning into the new ways. This sort of ‘easing in’ approach requires us to have a little bit of courage each day.

There is a story about a farm boy who met with a wandering soldier who told exciting tales of  travel and bravery in battle. The boy begged the soldier “Let me join you, because I do not want to waste my life farming. I want to prove how brave I am and stand beside you in battle!” The soldier shook his head and said, “It is not brave to leave home to fight battles. Rather, it takes courage to break your back plowing and planting, and shouldering the burden of being responsible for others. To feed them and clothe them and know when you wake every morning that they will be depending on you. It takes courage to stay and be responsible.”

“Courage doesn’t always roar.  Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.”  ~Mary Anne Radmacher

C.Reed Weber has been writing since she first discovered an unguarded pencil and continues today as a freelance journalist and grant writer. Living Beyond the Worst has been adapted from Happy Thoughts, a collection of email columns she wrote for friends and family during 2008-2009. Weber is currently working on developing Happy Thoughts into a book. You can purchase mini-volumes of Happy Thoughts from her Etsy site.