Tag / courage is calling

by Nathan Coumbe

Courage comes first

All other virtues depend on courage in their execution.

To some extent, all worthwhile endeavors require going against the status quo or doing something difficult. This requires bravery.

Being a courageous politician sometimes means opposing a tyrannical leader, even if that figure has mass appeal. But doing the right thing requires courage in this case.

Acting justly (i.e., doing the right thing) is often unpopular. (How depressing!)

Persisting in the face of opposition requires courage.

Doing the right thing often requires someone “going first,’ also known as leading! You must be courageous to lead, as you must be willing to fail.

by Nathan Coumbe

You are the one you’ve been waiting for

At the end of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (spoiler alert), Harry stands near the lake waiting for his father to appear and ward off the dementors attacking Sirius’s, Hermione’s, and his past selves.

After waiting for an agonizing amount of time, he realizes that he was the person who conjured the Patronus and drove the creatures away, not his father. He was the person he’d been waiting for all along.

Even without time travel, this is a relevant lesson to us. We often sit around waiting for someone to swoop in and save the day. We wait for someone else to act.

The problem is that everyone else is doing the same thing—they are all waiting around for someone else to rescue them from whatever the problem may be.

At some point, you must wake up and realize you are the hero of your story. You are the person everyone else is waiting for to act.

Someone eventually has to take a stand, so it might need to be you.