A Powerful Leverage Point in an Uncertain World

My 3 a.m. wake-up call

Photo by Bryan Hanson on Unsplash

I woke at 3 a.m. recently and couldn’t return to sleep. An idea kept appearing to me. I could almost see it as if on a floating billboard in the darkness. The energy that came with it propelled me out of bed.

Courage is a decision.

That’s it. That was the idea—or rather, the realization. Courage doesn’t just somehow magically come to us unbidden.

That’s what thoughts and emotions do. They just pop up from who knows where.

But courage? Courage comes when we choose it—when we deliberately decide how to respond to the circumstances of this wobbly world.

It comes when we acknowledge: Yes, we live in uncertain times.

And yes, many forces driving this uncertainty—from technological innovation to political dysfunction to climate change—can trigger a host of difficult emotions, from fear and anxiety to anger and despair.  

And still, we get to choose how to respond. The thoughts and emotions stirred by the events of the world are not the end of the story. They are the beginning.

The all-important next act comes from us — from our ability to decide what we will do to make a difference, however great or small. To share our strength perhaps with a young person. Or help lead an effort to drive positive change. Or have a difficult conversation. Or do that thing that calls to you though it is outside your comfort zone.

As the author and Rhodes Scholar Christie Hunter Arscott wrote in The Harvard Business Review last year: Even “micro acts of courage … are key to unlocking a courageous mindset.”

In a time when the fears and anxieties triggered by any day’s headlines can make us want to escape and escape again to the fantasy worlds of Netflix and Barbie, the decision to respond with courage is our great leverage point. It’s the way we decide to stop being swung about like a kid on an amusement park ride and say this is where I stand. This is what I will do. This is how I will find my way to contribute.

So, that’s it. My awakening of the week.

Your thoughts?