With my ensuing surgery next week and my current battles with my energy levels while I sustain to get there, I guess it is time to slow down. So, I decided to start a series for the next 10 days and talk about what influences or has influenced my attitude over my life.
Back in 1999, I was working as a consultant at FedEx in their technology center offices at Irving, TX and I saw this poem from Caroline Kent pinned up in one of the cubicles, that I duly photocopied as it resonated very much with me. It is still there with me on my pin-up board.
This poem is on “Courage” by Caroline Kent.
Reaching Your Dream Takes Courage
Courage is admitting that you’re afraid and facing that fear directly. It’s being strong enough to ask for help and humble enough to accept it.
Courage is standing up for what you believe in without worrying about the opinions of others. It’s following your own heart, living your own life, and settling for nothing less than the best for yourself.
Courage is daring to take a first step, a big leap, or a different path. It’s attempting to do something that no one has done before and all others thought impossible.
Courage is keeping heart in the face of disappointment and looking at defeat not as an end but as a new beginning. It’s believing that things will ultimately get better even as they get worse.
Courage is being responsible for your own actions and admitting your own mistakes without placing blame on others. It’s relying not on others for your success, but on your own skills and efforts.
Courage is refusing to quit even when you’re intimidated by impossibility. It’s choosing a goal, sticking with it, and finding solutions to the problems.
Courage is thinking big, aiming high, and shooting far. It’s taking a dream and doing anything, risking everything, and stopping at nothing to it make it a reality.
— Caroline Kent