Courage

Courage. 

Bonnie Ware, a hospice nurse, found that many of her patients regretted not having lived a truly authentic life. For many meeting the expectations and obligations of others become the life they had not necessarily dreamed of. 

“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, points out that,

“Most of us have two lives, the lives we live and the lives we are capable of living.”

It’s easy to think when you are young that you have all the time in the world to accomplish your dreams. However, the reality for those of us past fifty is that our days are limited. We have probably lived the majority of our days already. 

At lunch the other day with my sister we were talking about her future plans, and some choices she had. What is the life you are capable of living when given the chance?

We must embrace the here and now, because after all, it really is all we have for sure. We can’t keep putting off things hoping that sometime in the future they might come to pass. 

Now this doesn’t necessarily mean we need to write a bucket list, and start checking off each item furiously. In Essentialism, by Greg McKeown we learn to get rid of the nonessentials, and hone in on what is essential to us. 

I don’t have a long list of places I want to travel, but I do make spending time with my grandsons a priority. I don’t need to join a million clubs to keep me busy, as long as I have time to read and write. 

There comes a time when we get to choose the life we want, and not the life that others say we should live. Having the courage to do so, though, is required. 

Courage, in fact, is acting in spite of the fear. We may always have some hesitation, but we shouldn’t let that stop us from “living the life we are capable of.”