Courage is waking up one day to realize that almost everything taught to us in life was a lie — lies based upon the individual perspective of the person(s) who told them to us.

Courage is taking a hard look at your life and realizing you’re unhappy in your current life circumstances, and it’s time for a change.

Courage is committing to do something about it. Despite your fears, having faith you don’t know how, but that just by leaping into change and the unknown, everything, in the end, will be okay.

Courage is letting go of everything you thought used to be important to you, but that no longer serves your well-being.

Courage is packing up and hitting the road—never knowing the destination and just letting the journey itself guide the way.

Because, somehow deep inside you, you already know, wherever the road will lead you, the growth, transformation, and change are the journey.

Courage is finding yourself in a foreign land, knowing nothing of the language, customs, or culture. Realizing again, everything you thought you knew about this new place was drop-dead wrong, based solely on the stories, ideas, and personal experiences of someone else.

Courage is choosing to immerse yourself in the culture, learning a new language, and allowing yourself to make mistakes adjusting to new customs. Strength will come from adapting to and mastering new situations.

Courage is having the willingness to be alone in your skin, especially when it feels like nobody around you understands you.

Because you know in the end, no one else can ever understand your unique experience, except yourself.

Courage is learning to have patience with other people when they don’t conform to your new ways of thinking. You begin to understand that everyone is on their unique journey, which is vital to their growth.

Courage is learning to forgive yourself when you fuck up.

“Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.” Because you realize: this is the most powerful skill to have for living and thriving on this journey.

Courage is waking up another day, realizing you’re living outside the matrix of what you once thought was comfortable and safe. The world outside your comfort zone was nothing like what you imagined; it is, in fact, even better!

Courage is choosing to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to other’s “advice.” Choosing, instead, to follow the wisdom of your inner voice, following your internal “GPS.” Trusting, the voice within your heart, your higher self, is the only one that holds the truth to your higher purpose.

Courage is trusting yourself, having faith there are, in fact, no mistakes, only the learning of lessons.

Life is only an experience and an experiment of your own creating; the life you choose to create in all its vivid color is expressed solely by the thoughts, feelings, and emotions generated by you.

Courage is living creatively, choosing what serves YOUR greatest joy, fulfillment, and happiness. Your greatest gift is to understand that it is only in your joy and happiness that, as a humble servant, you can positively contribute to the world around you.

Courage is waking up yet another day, and in your creative living, you realize you’ve had everything you’ve ever needed inside you all along. Beautiful, abundant, and creative, you understand now the only thing that “has to be done” is only to remember and be present in this moment, living the experience.

Why? Because courage is the realization you’ve changed, there is no going back, and living a creative life is the most incredible adventure of all.

And it didn’t just begin; instead, it’s just evolved. You’re growing and thriving with every experience that comes along the way.

Except, now, eyes wide open, courage means your living a life of your choosing and on your terms—full of creativity, joy, happiness, and abounding fulfillment as the beautiful and amazing creator you already were, already are, and always will be.

Credits:  Inspired by all the courageous creators willing to step outside their comfort to create and live a life they love, “Courageous Creativity” is a short essay collaboration with Jason Samadhi, Heart-Centered Creator, and Daniel Brunner, Alternative Medicine Practitioner. Artwork by Jorm S, used with permission via license from Adobe Stock.