If I were to ask people how to describe you, would “courageous” show up in the list?
It seems we tend to associate that word with situations of life and death – war, saving someone from a burning building, stepping in the line of gun fire to save another, performing CPR on someone who’s heart has stopped. In last month’s news of Neil Armstrong’s death, we were reminded of the hero he was and the type of courage he possessed.
It got me thinking about courage, in general.
Neil Armstrong took two trips into space. OK, let’s start there — he went into space! These days we take that so lightly, but think about it for a minute. That decision alone, launching into space, takes a ton of courage – would you do it?
Armstrong’s first journey was in 1966 as commander of the Gemini 8 mission, which nearly ended in disaster.He kept his cool and brought the spacecraft home safely after a thruster rocket malfunctioned and caused it to spin wildly out of control. His second trip into space may have appeared to be smooth sailing, but it wasn’t.
In July 1969, Armstrong and fellow astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins blasted off in Apollo 11 on a nearly 250,000-mile journey which took four days to reach the moon. Again, Neil Armstrong demonstrated nerves of steel as he over-rode the autopilot to land on the moon because it was heading for an unstable landing surface. With 17 seconds left of fuel, he made a safe landing and the rest, as they say, is history. He then became the first man to walk on the moon.
Courage is defined as the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., with bravery. While most of us are not faced with life and death situations in our daily lives, we are often faced with difficulty in work and personal situations, and pain, whether it be physical or emotional.
Neil Armstrong was often described as having quiet courage throughout his life, proving that you don’t even have to be in a leadership role to demonstrate courage. There are many people out there who show courage in daily decisions and actions. Are you one of them?
Here are some ways in which your courage may show up:
When we live and work “under the radar” and stay in our “comfort zone,” we miss out on so many opportunities to learn, share and grow. It takes courage to try new things and venture out into the great unknown, but so worth it!
Carpe Diem!
I leave you with this quote, which I hope inspires you to get out there and make your mark on the world:
“I believe that the Good Lord gave us a finite number of heartbeats and I’m damned if I’m going to use up mine running up and down a street.” – Neil Armstrong
This was originally published on PeopleResult’s Current blog.
