This past New Year’s Eve, I made a fortune game for the party I went to. Basically, I wrote out a bunch of fortunes for 2025 (all of which were positive—no negative juju here) and had each person pick one out of a bag. The one I picked was, “2025 will be a year of taking strategic risks that will pay off. Get ready to channel your bravery!” From the time I read it, I knew it would be accurate for me this year, and so far, it certainly has! So, I figured, what better idea for a blog post than to spread this fortune to you? If you’ve been struggling to take strategic risks, look no further for some mindsets to push past that! These are some thoughts that make me feel the bravest—I hope they do the same for you!
1- All you have to do is take the action.
You don’t have to be in a perfectly brave headspace; you just have to physically do whatever tangible act you’re afraid of doing! For instance, if you’re scared to give a presentation at work, you don’t have to focus on getting rid of your nerves. All you have to do is carry out the physical action of saying what you need to say. Chances are, you’re far more prepared than you’re giving yourself credit for. Once you actually get started, you’ll probably feel a whole lot more comfortable, confident, and relieved! It’s just about taking that first step, saying that first word, etc. The point is, it’s okay to do it scared. It’s worlds better than not doing it at all. That’s what bravery is all about—doing it scared!
2- Failure is inevitable, and it can actually result in positive things.
One of my earliest blog posts talks all about this—Monthly Mindset Shift: How to Handle Failure with Confidence. If you haven’t read it yet, check it out! The key theme of the post is that failure is not the catastrophe that we often make it out to be. Instead, it can be a pathway to new knowledge and insight, which actually make us better. So, if your struggle to be brave stems from a fear of failing, now’s the time to rewire your mindset around failure. It’s not that deep, but if you want to make it deep, be proud of yourself for being brave. After all, bravery isn’t doing things that you know you’ll succeed in immediately. It’s doing things that you can’t guarantee your success in, certainly not immediately, but that you confidently trust you’ll get there. Now that’s deep!
3- Embarrassment is all a matter of perception.
Something is only embarrassing if you perceive it to be! I’m going to reference a more recent blog post of mine for this one—Monthly Mindset Shift: Turning “Embarrassment” Into Something Positive. Again, if you haven’t read it yet, check it out! This post is all about how the way we handle our “embarrassing” moments can actually inspire others. If your attempt at bravery doesn’t go quite as planned, that doesn’t make it an embarrassment. By perceiving it as no big deal, that could spark someone else going through something similar to perceive their situation the same way. A lot of times, we only feel embarrassed because it’s happening to us. In other words, if that same thing happened to someone we love or admire, we’d hardly even see it as embarrassing! We probably wouldn’t even give it much thought beyond initially finding out about it. So, extend that courtesy to yourself. May your bravery trump the fear of embarrassment—it’s only as big of a deal as you make it!
4- Most of the everyday risks we take aren’t even dangerous.
The greatest risks they pose generally have to do with failure and embarrassment, which we’ve already covered! Of course, if the action at hand does pose a high risk of severe danger, that’s another story. Here, though, we’re talking about your average nonthreatening display of bravery. It could be as simple as putting yourself out there socially, romantically, professionally, etc. Understandably, it can be nerve-wracking to put yourself out there in any of those ways. But if the worst case scenario is failure or embarrassment, circle back to #2 & #3! Though easier said than done, sometimes it’s just a matter of laying out the logic for yourself to put things in perspective. You’re not in danger; you’re perfectly safe. In fact, better than safe, because channeling your bravery could have incredible results for you and others!
5- Instead of asking yourself what could go wrong, ask yourself what could go right.
When your eyes are on the prize rather than the negative “what if” scenarios, bravery should come a lot more easily. This isn’t to advise you to get your hopes up so high that you’re blindsided if things don’t go the way you hoped. It’s just to say that there’s usually more than one positive outcome that can arise from something. Whether or not it’s the outcome you’ve been hoping for remains to be seen. Regardless, think of different ways that things can go well. Even in an outcome that’s not what you wanted, at least you can say you went for it. *Cue the song 4 Minutes by Madonna ft Justin Timberlake: “At least I can say I did what I wanted to do. Tell me how bout you?”* You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Wouldn’t you rather miss a shot you did take than one you didn’t? At least there’s no regrets and no wondering what could’ve been!
6- Have faith that what’s meant to be will be.
Personally, I find that there’s a strong link between faith and bravery. Hence the term “leap of faith”! As per #4, as long as your risk isn’t dangerous, you can trust that you’ll be okay regardless of the outcome. And as per #5, even if it’s not the outcome you wanted, it can still be a valuable one. You might not understand it in the moment, but it should hopefully make more sense over time. In the meantime, trust your ability to bounce back from any unideal outcome. Trust the process that will lead you to a more ideal outcome in the future. Lastly, trust me when I say, you will get there!
The bottom line…
Bravery comes down to getting out of your head and into whatever you’re doing. It’s not particularly easy, nor does it come without its fair share of fears, but it’s absolutely worth it. So, just like my fortune said, get ready to channel your bravery (in 2025 and beyond)!
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