Top 5 Benefits of Living Courageously: Achieve Your Dreams

Leaning into living courageously can benefit your life and goals tremendously. Do you have a dream life that’s waiting to be realised? Do you feel like you lack the courage to make it happen? In this blog post, I will share my Top 5 benefits of living courageously. Living courageously can be like a propeller forward to help you achieve your dreams. The truth is you are not lacking courage. Courage is within you. It is just like a muscle that is waiting to be strengthened- through use.  

Top 5 Benefits of Living Courageously

1.  Supports you in living a more authentic life that’s true to you. 
2.  Builds your self-trust and overall trust in life.
3.  Helps you achieve your dreams.
4. Reinforces your Integrity. Aligning your actions with your true values.
5. Live your life to the fullest and embrace your full potential.   

It’s easy to have a dream and intention for your life. But, is it always easy to make it happen? There will inevitably be challenges along the way. Plus, there will be things you will need to grow from, adapt, learn and evolve with. And, fears that you need to be faced. The dreams that truly matter to you, that you desire to become a reality, likely require the courage to act upon them. Maybe you are not where you would like to be. The current lifestyle you are living is not contributing to your happiness and fulfilment anymore. Change. Give yourself permission to allow positive change. Make positive changes. If You Always Do What You’ve Always Done, You’ll Always Get What You’ve Always Got.” ~ Henry Ford. You will likely need to use your courage muscle to make these changes happen. That’s why I have written this post.

Do you want to travel the world? Be able to work from anywhere? Write your own book? Be in a healthy, committed partnership with the love of your life? Whatever your dream may be, big or small, I’m here to tell you that if you can dream it, hold that desire in your heart, 100 per cent back yourself, commit, trust, have faith, learn, grow and expand along the way, you can achieve it. It may not always be exactly how you thought it was supposed to look, but you will get there if you decide.  

Courage is the ability to walk into the unknown and take a leap of faith. 

It’s courageous to move forward when you don’t know all the answers.

There is courage in saying, “I am sorry.”

Courage is expanding with life, growing, evolving and opening again. 

Standing up for what you believe in. That takes courage.

There is courage in letting go.

Courage is the ability to say to yourself, I’ve got this and I believe in myself no matter what.  

Courage is doing things you’ve never done. 

There is courage in beginning again and starting fresh.

It’s courageous to care less about what other people think of you and what you’re doing. 

Courage is allowing yourself to dream big for your potential and your future.  

Courage is the ability to say I don’t know.

There is courage in the ability to not accept that which does not reflect the truly wonderful, worthy, brave and enough human being that you are.

Courage is to be brave in the face of adversity, setbacks and challenges.   

There is courage in the choice to not give up on what truly matters to you and what you believe in. 

There is courage and strength in being open and vulnerable.

Speaking your truth. Showing up. Takes courage.

 Journal Action Prompt: What does living courageously mean to you? 

It is courageous to live the life you dream of. It’s courageous to live the life that’s true to you rather than the life that others expect of you.  The courage to go after what you truly want even when there is the risk of judgement, criticism and failure. The courage to be disliked. Courage gives us the strength and resilience to keep going, even when things gets tough. It allows us to stay focused on our goals and persevere through difficult times. Why would you want to courageously live a life that is true to you and embrace your authenticity? The most common regret of the dying, “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” 

Living courageously can help build your self-trust and overall trust in life.  

The more that you build your self-trust, the easier it can feel to take courageous action steps. Once you start building self-trust within the smaller things and defining your discernment along the way, you can have more self-trust built within you to say yes to the bigger things like booking that flight abroad, sharing your voice more and starting your own business. The more trust that I have cultivated within myself, the more trust I have cultivated towards life, as I know that I can stand by me. Taking that leap of faith and having the courage to do the things that you want to do may feel a lot rockier without self-trust.

I learnt to trust myself and life more through ‘failure’ and self & life discovery and experience. “If I didn’t try I wouldn’t have known. And, now that I ‘know’ I’ll learn from my experience and apply this knowledge to my now.” It is courageous to try. If we observe little children learning to walk, at first they crawl and then they stumble, they fall, they get back up again, they wobble, and eventually, they learn and trust themselves that they can walk. I see building self-trust as similar to this process. We all start somewhere, and each day we walk to remind ourselves that we can walk. It first takes the courage to crawl and fall. When you start anything, even if you’re not a beginner and have done it before, your courage is something that you can draw upon to do the thing.

Learning to trust yourself is a process. Small steps, big progress. 

Ways that you can cultivate more self-trust daily: 

Proving to yourself that you can do the things you say to yourself you will do. Start small. This will help build consistency and commitment rather than not committing to the thing as you put too high of expectations on yourself to begin with. When we start small and focus on one thing, this can lead to more empowerment rather than disempowerment.

Affirmation: I accept where I am at. Where I am at is exactly where I need to be. I trust myself. It’s safe for me to cultivate my self-trust.

Courage can be the propeller forward to take action, show up and achieve your dreams. Consistently using your courage muscle matters. It helps you build your self-confidence. Reminder: Strengthen your courage muscle by doing things that are outside of your comfort zone while also staying kind to yourself and being true to you.

Have you always wanted to travel the world? This was a dream of mine and I didn’t want to wait. So, at 19 years old I booked a flight solo to Europe from Australia. I had to use my courage muscle in the face of fears from myself and my family and friends. Instead of staying the same, I chose courage. I chose courage and to believe in myself and this dream despite the ‘shoulds’ from others and the ‘shoulds’ from myself.   

While I was in Berlin, I decided to get my first tattoo on my rib cage that says, ‘Say Yes’. This tattoo is a reminder to ‘Say Yes’ to what’s possible for me. To say yes to stepping out of my comfort zone and living my greatest life possible.  

 Journal Action Prompt:

What is something that is out of your comfort zone, but you know that you want to say yes to?  

Where in your life do you want to say yes more that will benefit you positively, even though it will take you courage? 

Sure, it’s scary taking the leap. But nothing’s as scary as leaving this earth say what if? What if trusted a little more? If I believed in myself? What if I opened my heart more? What if I tried again? 

Live and love your life like it’s your last.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

The best time to start strengthening your courage muscle is now. When you act with courage, you are more likely to strengthen your integrity by staying true to your values and beliefs. Integrity is doing what is right, even when it is difficult and when no one is looking.

Have you always wanted to have the freedom to express your creativity through having your own business? Do you value freedom and living a life that’s true to you? Do you believe that you can make an income doing what you love? If you’re a fellow go-getter and on the entrepreneurial adventure, I can so recommend The Goal Digger Podcast. Check out my best self-development Podcast recommendations here. Moreover, you can develop your integrity by choosing to courageously take actions that are aligned with your true values, beliefs and dreams. Even when it’s challenging and when you feel like no one is supporting you. Someone, somewhere is so happy that you exist!

Action Prompt:

What is one small action that is associated with an aligned dream of yours that you’ve been putting off and saying you will get to it one day? Can you do that one thing and take that one step towards your dream today?

Achieving small wins will help build your consistency and commitment when it comes to the bigger things. Doing something and progress is better than nothing at all. Have big goals, dream big for your potential, have quality standards but keep your expectations present and realistic. This can lead to more empowerment rather than more disempowerment.  

Affirmation: “I am making steady, consistent progress towards my goals daily.”

“I live my life in alignment with my true values and beliefs.”

Choosing to live courageously can help you live your life to the fullest and embrace your full potential. This does not mean it’s all good times, it means you don’t just exist, but you really LIVE. The consistent strengthening of using your courage muscle can help you get back up quicker when life knocks you down and when you go through challenges. Going ALL IN in your life and on your dreams takes courage. The courage to embrace vulnerability, pain, fears, rejection, disappointment and failure. Living courageously can help propel you forward into doing the things that make you happy, prioritising what truly matters to you and achieving the dreams that you set out to make a reality.

 

As I’ve been writing this post, I’ve realised that courage is not all that glamorous. However, for me, many great things have happened through choosing courage, believing in myself, having faith and learning & growing along the way. If I hadn’t chosen courage, I wouldn’t have got to experience my dream of living in and travelling Europe. I wouldn’t have met some of my best true friends that I have now if I hadn’t chosen to move to one of my past, dream cities in Australia. If I hadn’t chosen the courage to heal and forgive the past, I wouldn’t have the strong and healthy relationship with my family that I have now. I wouldn’t be living and creating my ideal career and lifestyle if I didn’t choose the courage to show up, implement positive changes, commit and believe in myself each and every day.

Where are you choosing courage today? Comment below.

If you have any questions, kind comments or blog post requests, please leave a comment below or you can contact me here.