What is courage?

Today we celebrate Anzac Day. It is a day where we celebrate the heroism, courage and sacrifice of our soldiers who fought so gallantly to give us the freedoms and rights we probably take for granted these days.

So how would I have gone if I was on the battlefield? Probably not great. I am not great at confrontation at the best of times yet to gladly and voluntarily take up arms to defend our nation is something that I do not think I would have the courage to do. That is not to say that I don’t love my country. I am fortunate to have been born in the greatest country in the world. We are indeed a Lucky Country, where we are generally far away from violent world conflicts.

So in assessing courage to face difficulties, I have no situation that I have ever faced that even comes remotely close to what our brave men and women of our armed forces would have faced in battle. They put their lives on the line so that I can go to bed at night knowing that I will wake up in the morning and enjoy the same freedoms I had the day before.

My perspective on courage is such that I feel I have no right to shy away from challenges in my life, because nothing compares to what our military personnel have faced. What is the most difficult thing I have dealt with in my life? Losing 2 siblings to unnatural causes was bad, yet I have dealth with those significant losses and managed to still gete by. The pain has eased, with the fond memories of them still alive in me. Separation and divorce were tough, but yet again I have managed to face the challenge and come through it intact.

So was facing those situations and getting through them courageous? Probably. I can think of many lesser situations in the past where I have baulked at taking action because of a lack of self belief and self confidence. I have made assumptions that things would just be too hard, or embarrassing, or humiliating if they did not go how I wished them to go. I didn’t want to fail, or to let anyone (or myself) down. That is the opposite of courage – not taking a chance at all. So what would be the worst thing that could happen? It certainly would not be a life and death mental struggle, so I have no excuses to not face any situation full on for the rest of my life.

So from this day on, I vow to myself to take each moment as it comes. To make the most of every moment and to take learnings out of every situation, good or bad. To have faith in myself as a person and to allow myself the chance to truly get the most out of life from now on.

That’s about as courageous as I need to be.