How to unlock your courage
The key to unlocking courage (in yourself or those around you) is safety. You must feel safe in order to be courageous. So how do you make yourself feel safe enough?
Good safety behaviours unlock courage
There are things that you can do to make yourself feel safe enough to jump into the feared moment.
You wouldn't parachute out of a plane without listening hard to the instructors, learning what you need, practising and doing the safety checks on your harness first.
When you're trying to jump past a fear, whether that is jumping out a plane, jumping into having a difficult conversation or jumping to put your opinion or personality out there for others to see, there are key things that can help you unlock courage, I call these good safety behaviours
1) Preparation and learning
2) Creation of the right support or environment
3) Practice
4) Experimentation
5) Learning from experience
6) Learning about your self and about your stories around fear
7) Learning self-management and new good safety techniques
Good safety behaviours are things that help you move into a place of action.
Bad safety behaviour build fear
However, there are some behaviours that masquerade as helpful, but actually hold you back. Bad safety is anything to do with avoidance. Avoidance of the fear associated with the jump.
Avoidance looks like it keeps us safe, we avoid the jump, but actually what happens is our fears grow. We never build our experience and the only thing that grows is our fear.
Examples of bad safety I see almost daily are
• don’t speak;
• don’t stand up;
• don’t tell your truth;
• don’t put yourself forward;
• don’t put yourself up for judgement;
• go with the majority;
• don’t challenge;
• resist change;
• avoid failure by not trying etc. etc.
Bad safety behaviours tell us to play small.
So, time for you to think, what good safety and bad safety behaviours are you using right now and how are they helping or hindering you in unlocking your courage?
I'd love to know so please write to me on how this idea resonates with you.
The next intake of The Courage Club is 21st March and early bird is now available, click this: Early Bird Link to make one of the most powerful decisions you will ever make! We spend time thinking about fears so you can move past the voices and into a bigger game. You cannot imagine the progress our current clubbers are making, this is the place to play safely and master your fears.
Some ways to work with me
Facilitating meaningful and action-focused conversations for collectives that are progressing with team excellence behaviours and/or conversations that require safety and care to progress effectively with accountability by all.
Remarkable teaming behaviour is built on strong connections and courageous communication. This program gives you faster decisions, higher quality work and frictionless interpersonal systems. For collectives who want to work better together. The Safe Space Program
Training your managers to help them have conversations that drive performance and engagement (including giving and receiving feedback, difficult conversations and the responsibility of leadership. Conversations Create Growth
Driving self- management and behavioural flexibility for people to adapt, control their best self and influence strongly those around them. Self-management
Accessing one of my keynotes for your internal organisation or to recommend me to speak at an industry event. Speaking
Of course, I'd also be delighted to talk if you think I can help +61 421 955 700
Amy helps teams use the psychology of groups to their advantage. Her programs drive connection, communication and courage for remarkable achievements. Please see The Safe Space and DrAmySilver.com