Seeing someone know what they want and pursue their goals is admirable, but what’s truly inspiring is seeing someone do so in the midst of uncertainty, opposition, and doubt.  The empowered individual, or Creator as David Emerald might put it, is vision-focused, eyes always on the prize.  When the winds of challenges come blowing in, they are not deterred or swayed, even if their human nature will inevitably invite them to take an easier way that will seem less costly.

There are many acts of courage of heroic nature we can dream up in stories, movies, or tales from our history.  How about in our day-to-day life?  How about those small choices we will be making today that will require a certain amount of courage?

Truth be told, we have daily opportunities to make an act of courage.  When our cell phone rings and the caller display shows it’s that one person with an uncanny gift for sucking the life out of us within ten minutes of talking about themselves, we can ignore the call or answer.  When we are doing our monthly budget and are not sure how we are going to make ends meet, we can sit there and worry about it, we can avoid it with mind-numbing distractions, or we can proactively take steps to solve the issue.  What about when the demands of life are overwhelming and we want to give up and take a day off of all of our responsibilities?  Empowerment is to stick to the grind and tackle each of these elements individually in order of priority.

The list of examples of courage in daily life could go on indefinitely.  But, in my opinion, the greatest act of courage is to let go of control.  Life is full of uncertainty.  Every person around us strives to build a secure life for themselves and their choices have ripple effects on us, as ours do on them.  Sometimes their choices are outright detrimental for us.  Life is anything but still waters.  It’s turbulent and sometimes violent.  We come to realize sooner or later that there is very little that we have control over.  The anxious person fears that.  The empowered person embraces it with courage.

To let go of control, however, is not to give up.  It’s to welcome what life throws at us and to make the most of every circumstance we find ourselves in at any given moment.  In other words, it’s to roll with the punches.  Even when we feel concerned that one of those punches might knock us out, we stand our ground.  Some days it may feel like life is trying to beat you to a pulp.  That’s OK.  That’s life.  You can stand up to life and punch it back in the face.

Obviously, courage in our day-to-day life isn’t quite that violent.  The point I’m making is that you are never defeated unless you declare defeat.  If I get knocked down, I get up again, ain’t nobody gonna keep me down (admit it, you had a song starting to play in your head!).  No matter how often life knocks you down, have the courage to get up again and again.  In the words of the great Rocky Balboa, “It’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.”