Monday, October 27, 2008

What We Don't Always Recognize as Courage

Some of the toughest kinds of boldness are not so obvious. They include:

*Waiting, when appropriate, and not "jumping the gun." Example: letting a manuscript sit a while, and then taking another look; instead of sending it off the instant it feels done.

*Changing a long-standing pattern. Example: crossing party lines to vote. A very minor example: A devout Democrat, I just voted Republican for the first time ever, on one Council of State race. It felt pretty shocking.

*Being sad when there's something to be sad about, instead of cutting the feeling off immediately with caffeine and busy work.

*Not taking on too much. Rather than overloading your schedule to the point of lunacy.

*Not worrying.




If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.

2 comments:

Mamie said...

I have to say that I'm working on each and every one of those kinds of boldness. Every single one. Thanks for pointing out different ways of standing up to ourselves.

Peggy Payne said...

"Standing up to ourselves" is a nice way of putting it,Mamie. I was just reading a magazine article in, I think, the new Atlantic, about why we can't just decide something rationally and then count on ourselves to do it. I didn't find a solution there in my quick skim, but definitely see I'm not the only one.