Conscious Leadership: The Roadmap Step 2: Becoming Courageous by Artemis Evangelidi

Becoming courageous is the next step on our ‘Roadmap to Conscious Leadership’ and a fundamental component of our journey.

And I say ‘becoming’ because I believe courage is a fluid, expansive process. When we think we have hit our target, something new will come along to challenge the status quo. If we feel courage is fixed, we may falter, but if we believe it is a process, we can always keep exploring it further without any self-imposed limitations – those hurdles we lay out along the way that end up sabotaging our own process.

So, what does courage mean to you? Where do you feel you sit on the ‘Courage Scale’? Can you tap into your ‘Courage Resources’ whenever you need to or do things get in the way? What is the impact of your courageous actions in your life and in the lives of others?

These are the questions we should all be asking ourselves and asking them often. Why? Because it is impossible to live and lead consciously without a healthy dose of courage thrown into the mix. And expanding our self-awareness around this element is crucial.

Courage is what it takes to be able to shine the light, lead the way and hold the door open for others to join us. Courage means we can get things done – whether that is speaking up, saying no, taking that new opportunity, sharing a novel idea, or stepping outside of our comfort zones.

Becoming courageous is a process and so it requires that we actively commit to it. The good news is that each and every day we have the chance to look each challenge, fear, hesitation or conflict in the eye and take a courageous step forward. One small step each time. With faith, with creativity and with the knowledge that all will transpire as it is supposed to. And each time we do so, we keep adding to our courage bank and building our resilience muscle.

Living with courage means accepting that we are in the driver’s seat of our lives – where all that is transpiring has been created by us, for us and not by fate or chance. Here we can see how we are already putting into action step 1 of this roadmap – that is, ‘Empowered Responsibility’. It takes courage to be responsible and responsibility to be courageous.

No matter how you look at it, courage is a powerful element that we each have within us – an element that opens the door to empowerment, to freedom and to a life lived aligned with our values. Acting with integrity takes courage. Taking a stand takes courage. Doing the right thing for ourselves takes courage. Leading with love at the core takes courage.

Join me on this courageous journey and see how this element can lead you down a beautiful path in life and in leadership. Put it into action starting today – challenge yourself to take those courageous steps forward whenever you can and journal about what that means for you.

Courageous leaders are needed now more than ever – let us all take that baton and run with it.