5.20 Bethany Hamilton: Have Courage

“Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you.” - Bethany Hamilton

How do you find the courage to do what you need to do afraid?

I used to be terrified of making mistakes. I was so afraid of making mistakes that I wouldn’t try new moves I learned until I had them mastered.

This taught me two things: How to quickly learn and master new skills so that I had the confidence to actually use them, and how to do things afraid.

I had more courage than most, but there was always one or two athletes who looked like they had no fear. They would see something, try it, mess up, and just try it again. I wanted that level of confidence for myself, but I learned that more than confidence, I needed courage.

Bethany Hamilton lost her arm in a shark attack when she was a 13-year old rising surf star. If that happened to me, I would probably never get in the water again, but she returned to surfing just one month later, and she won her first national surfing title within the next two years.

She once said, “Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you.”

Bethany didn’t let one event stop her from doing what she loved, so why do we? Why would we let anything stop us? The world gives us a lot of things and reasons to feel fear, but have courage, and don’t let fear stop you.

When afraid and needing courage, I say, “3, 2, 1,” then act before I can think or talk my way out of it.

Question of the Day: How do you beat fear with courage?