The Gratitude Challenge’s sixth topic is “Courage”.

Many people resort to constant complaining rather than changing the situation because it requires less courage. While I found the concept of “love it, change it, or leave it” highly cultural (for example in many Asian cultures you would rather be supposed to sit it out), in none of the concepts that I know it is encouraged to constantly complain without making any efforts to improve the situation. It takes courage to speak up and step out of one’s own comfort zone.

An acquaintance recently blogged about her experience of hitch hiking and how she later told her friend that this was outside of her comfort zone. Said friend then asked her “oh, you still have a comfort zone?!”. I think people would ask such question in order to show that they are courageous and open to new experiences. But neglecting the existence of a comfort zone does not factually make it go away. I do not think that there is anyone in this world who never feels uncomfortable doing something. Just that it very much differs from individual to individual what is perceived as uncomfortable and consequently requires courage to do.

Courage can be a feeling within ourselves, and it can also be attributed to us by others, when we might not even feel that it’s “a big thing”. What for one is nothing, for the other requires a lot of courage. I was told that me going to different countries and living and working there without having ever been there before, nor speaking the language was courageous.

Who would have thought that I found it much scarier to look inside and see parts of myself of which I had not known that they were there? I had successfully ignored these not so pretty sides that are driven by fear, egoism, indecisiveness and a lost connection between mind and heart.

I’m grateful that I have people around me who enable and encourage me to look inside, who accept these sides and support me to break patterns and to run on autopilot a bit less often.