A month or so ago, I watched an interview with an impressive and accomplished woman. During the interview, she shared experiences from her personal and professional life and discussed some of the obstacles she had to overcome to get to where she is today. I was thoroughly impressed with the entire conversation, however, one thought had an indelible impact on me. It was a principle she said had guided her life in a profound way. She expressed the principle in a simple yet powerful phrase, “Choose Courage over Comfort”.

I pondered the phrase all weekend, wondering whether it was applicable in any way to my life. Predictably, I began to evaluate key decisions I had made over the past few years to ascertain whether I was more motivated by courage or whether my natural instincts drove me towards a pursuit of comfort. The result of this brief introspection came as quite a surprise to me. I recalled about a dozen situations in which I believe I acted courageously but also found many more instances where my desire for physical, emotional or psychological comfort completely overshadowed any inkling to be courageous.

I decided to pursue the topic of courage a little further to truly understand its characteristics and what it demands of those who seek to increase their sphere of influence and change the world. In my pursuit, I remembered a plaque that hung in my family’s dining room as a child. It had a picture of a majestic lion, perhaps the epitome of courage in the animal kingdom. The message on the plaque was unexpected and to my teenage self, a little inspiring. It read:

“The essence of courage is not that your heart should not quake, but that no one else should know it does.”

Source unknown

Growing up, I saw that message more than a thousand times, but in retrospect, I realize I have not always lived up to it. Like many, I have fallen victim to one of the most pervasive myths about courage, which is the idea that courage is the absence of fear. Far from it, courage is the willingness to persevere in the face of fear. It is a fixed determination to beat the odds placed before you and it is usually cultivated within the hearts and minds of those who take deliberate steps forward in defense of what they know to be true. One thing courage is not is comfortable.

So what does it mean to choose courage over comfort? What decisions have you made in your life that were motivated by comfort? What conversations have you avoided, which friends have you forgotten and what feelings have you ignored in your pursuit of comfort? Have you limited your influence for good in your family, neighborhood, church or community because of a desire to be comfortable? Can you name anything worthwhile you have accomplished that came about because of a desire to be comfortable?

I am not suggesting there is something wrong with wanting to be comfortable. What I am suggesting is that comfort is the reward we get after we have persevered courageously through the trials and challenges this life may throw at us. Without courage, comfort dwells in mediocrity. It is through courage that we discover our strengths. It is through trials that we discover our virtue and through perseverance we discover our potential. Hence, seeking comfort at the outset limits the scope of your horizon and turns your focus to only what is necessary to satisfy your selfish desires at the moment.

Through the courageous actions of our forebears, we live today in a world that affords us a level of comfort even nobles of the past could not have dreamed of. We are beneficiaries of a heritage of courage led in many cases by people no more intelligent or privileged than any of us today. To the contrary, those who have left a legacy of courage were ordinary people who chose to stand when all others fled. What made them different was the fact that they were acquainted enough with their convictions to risk paying the ultimate price to stand for what they believed.

Innovation is the fruit of discomfort and societies that have sought comfort over courage have found themselves trapped in the mire of yesterday’s problems. Over time, I have come to know that the best way to be courageous is to come to terms with the worst case scenario. The reason many of us choose comfort is that we do not take time to fully evaluate what would happen if we chose otherwise. Analyzing the worst case scenario allows you to understand the consequences of the courageous choice. If you determine you can live with those consequences, then being courageous will always make you happier and more fulfilled in the end.

For the past 4 years of my professional career, I have been employed as a business consultant, my primary responsibility being, to help organizations large and small accomplish key business objectives through the implementation and adoption of a combination of software and business analytics methodologies.

These businesses looked to me in most instances as the expert in the room, there to help navigate them through the changes we all agreed would transform their operations and lead them to long-term success. I enjoyed every bit of my time as a consultant and learned many valuable lessons that shaped my understanding of success and what it takes to achieve it.

On May 6th, 1954, something really incredible happened. A seemingly impossible feat was accomplished, and the whole world of sports was turned upside down. You may not know the significance of that date but its influence has almost certainly permeated your life in one way or another. It is the story of an incredible athlete, Roger Bannister, and his historic triumph over what was then called, “the Everest of athletic achievement”, the 4-minute mile.

About 7 years ago, a nationally syndicated radio personality made a public request for volunteers to help build a website for a charity he intended to launch. An email address was provided to enable those interested to contact the show. As a budding web developer and a fan of the show, I immediately sent an email to register my interest. A few days later, I was invited to a conference call scheduled to discuss the needs and requirements of the website.

I was extremely excited that I had been chosen and without thinking too much, I began to mock up what the charity website could look like. I did not have any information about the specifications of the site, but I felt compelled to build something nonetheless, so I could more easily communicate my ideas about how the task could be accomplished.