I was about to get all well-researched, historical, philosophical with you. I had information about the four cardinal virtues and Aristotle and habits and attributes and nouns and synonyms ready to share. I considered whether it is an emotion or behavior or desire or what it is within my Human Internal Operating System™ (H-IOS ™).Then I fell asleep in the middle of reading and writing to wake up to an entire page of…nothing about anything, really.

Thank goodness. Because now I am clearer and can see it boils down to this.

Simon Sinek hurt my feelings.

This author, speaker and consultant said something during a video that was posted on LinkedIn that really tweaked me so I was going to learn all I could and share all the quotes (of which there are many) to try to describe what this is and why he was wrong…

When it all boils down to Sinek hurt my feelings and tried to take something away from me.

He said he believes, “Courage is an external thing…You don’t go inside yourself to find your courage to overcome things. Courage comes from relationships and the feeling that someone has your back. When someone says ‘I believe in you’ and that’s what fuels us and that’s what gives us the courage to overcome…” And, “our courage comes from the courage of others.”

Those statements are untrue for me. My courage is mine and it comes from a place within that wills me to carry on in the face of fear and adversity. I believe courage is within me – possibly part of my inner truth? emotion? desire? behavior? – and that I cultivate my courage, my fortitude, my resilience each time that I face difficulty and come out of it on the other side, scathed or unscathed.

What is courage to you?