"Waiting to develop courage is just another form of procrastination. The most successful people take action while they're afraid!" - Bev James

How true this is! I am an expert procrastinator sometimes, especially when there is something I don't want to do, but also when there is something I am scared of doing for one reason or another.

I might want to do it, but I might be afraid that I won't do it well enough, or that I might fail completely. Or I want to do it but what will happen if I actually managed to do it, will it change my life, or even me? Will people look at me differently if I fail or succeed than they do now? Maybe I have expressed strong opinions about something, but along the way of life I have come to realise that it might be as I thought, and maybe people around me will judge me for changing my opinions? Maybe you are afraid that if you do this thing you keep avoiding to do you will lose yourself and who you are?

The list why we put up doing something can be long, but it almost always comes down to fear of some sort. But here's the thing; If you don't do it, you will never know what could come of it! This thing will be an important step in your life. Everything you chose to do, and everything you chose to not do are important steps in your life. It will change you even when you decide not to do something. It is always a matter of choice, and every choice is life changing. Even choices to not act!

The difference between putting something off and doing something is huge though. When you put something off, or when you chose not to do something because you are afraid of doing it, it will keep hanging over you for a long time, maybe for the rest of your life. But when you something, no matter if you fail or succeed in doing it, you can always feel proud for having tried. And that is success, right there!

In other words, if you try you succeed!

So if you have got something you want to do, or need to do, or should do just do it. Now that if you at least try and do your best, you will never ever go wrong.

And of course, always, always, always keep your main goal in sight. Never lose track of who you are inside even when you do something that you might not want to do. Everything you do will help you forward, will you reach your goals as long as you have your main goal in focus while doing it.

This means that you can NEVER go wrong! EVER!!!

"Waiting to develop courage is just another form of procrastination. The most successful people take action while they're afraid!" - Bev James

The results might not be what you expected, but it will always be good for you in the end if you keep this in mind.

Carina

"Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others." – Winston Churchill

Do you have courage to make use of your qualities?

Courage, to me, is to do something even though you are scared of doing it, or if you don't know where it is heading. To take that step, or maybe even a big leap, into the unknown is courage. Without courage that first step would never be taken, ever or by anyone. Without courage no other qualities count.

I'm experiencing this at the moment. I had a meeting yesterday that might lead to a job doing a lot of the things I dream about doing. I have never done any of those things before, professionally, but if I get the job offer I will most certainly jump on the opportunity and I will do my absolute best to do a fantastic job. And it takes a lot of courage, will and love to take such a leap in a career, and I'm really scared.

Those of you that know me, and those of you that follow my blog, know that my dream is to make money, and support myself, writing. You also know that I can be very social but also a lone wolf at times. This job would include all of those aspects, as well as proof reading and a bit of editing of what other people have written. Something I've been doing my whole life (due to a mother that was proof reading for the local newspaper and a step father that worked as a printer at the same paper when I grew up, always correcting every little error that occurred in everything I wrote or said), and usually do without even thinking of it. Correcting spelling and grammar is natural to me.

Now,  if I wouldn't take this opportunity, if given to me, if I wouldn't be courageous enough to do it then it wouldn't matter how good a writer I am, or how good I am at spelling or if I would be a charming interviewer because I wouldn't need those qualities.

If the Wright brothers hadn't had the courage to try their flying invention then they would never have known if it was working and the world would be a completely different place from what it is today. That first courageous step is what makes all the difference, it is what is needed to change the world, your life or you into something better than it is. It is what gives you the opportunities to use your other qualities.

Courage comes from your within, it's all inside you and has always been there. You just need to start using it. You need to trust yourself that whatever happens you will be great. I don't need this job, but I would LOVE to get it. If I don't get  it I will still be great. I will keep writing and I will keep taking the chances that come my way. If I get the job and it doesn't work out, at least I will know that I was courageous enough to give it a try and I will not have to spend the rest of my life wondering what could have been.

So follow your heart, find your inner courage and trust that whatever you do everything will be great, one way or another.

For more information about Sir Winston Churchill follow this link or this.

Love
Carina

"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way" - George Herman "Babe" Ruth

If you let fear control your life, you will never get what you want.

Do you chose not to do something because you are afraid of failing? I know a lot of people do and I sure have. I try not to think that way anymore though. I mean, what good does it do me to not even try to do something I want to do?

I have friends who dream about meeting the Right Man or Woman, most people do. Only these particular friends have bad experiences from bad relationships in the past and now they are afraid to give it another try. The problem with that way of thinking is that if they don't try again they can never heal and they will never find Mr och Miss Right. If you are one of those people you need to read this!

To heal from that sort of experiences you need to put yourself in similar situations and learn that every person you meet and every relationship you have is different. If you tend to choose the same kind of partner, that hurt you or treat you badly in same kind of way, over and over again then you need to have a good look at yourself, but you should never ever stop trying. The hard truth is that if you stop trying you will never get it right. You might not get hurt ever again, but you will not be loved, or love, the way you dream of ever again either.

I have been in plenty of "bad" relationships, I have never been physically abused but I have been mentally abused in a couple of them and cheated on in almost all of them. It has never stopped me from trying again and again; it has never stopped me from giving the next guy a chance. Although I have a fantastic boyfriend and an amazing relationship now, I still struggle with feelings of insecurity sometimes. I still fear that I am not enough, or that I'm not able to love the way I want to be loved and yet I KNOW that I am enough to my boyfriend and that he does love me the way I want to be loved. So, you see, I do have the fear but I am healing every day thanks to what I have today, thanks to my lovely Man. But if I hadn't given him a chance, I would still be alone, wounded and scared and I would never ever have found the Right Man for me.

The same philosophy goes for everything you want in life. My fear of striking out got in the way of my dream about writing, but I'm not letting the fear win anymore. Fear is something that is fabricated in one's head; fear is something you can control. You are in charge and the biggest way of striking out is to not even take the shot.

To learn more about "Babe" Ruth read this and this.

Love
Carina