It can be hard to balance our fears, both the ones we know about and those we don’t. As kids, we look up to people who show courage, but that doesn’t always mean we learn to be brave ourselves. Courage is what bravery is built on, and it can take well into our adulthood to achieve it.
Later in life, I personally faced tough times with money, family, and health. My usual ways of coping didn’t work, and things got progressively worse. Experiencing personal and professional crises led me to seek new ways to deal with challenges, which changed how I saw things. These experiences inspired me to become a coach and help others build resilience and navigate hard times with a new, skillful approach.
Those obstacles were turning points for me and made me think about what it means to be brave. Through this process, I came up with the idea and term I coined called “Benevoliefs,” which helped me look at my problems in a new way, no matter how big or small they were.
Because of this, I created a simple approach to help myself and others handle change, using a practical five-step tool to build bravery.
- Positive beliefs about yourself that help you reach your potential, face tough times, and turn negative thoughts into empowering ones. For example, if you think, “I cannot see a way forward in my job or career,” a Benevolief would be, “I choose to believe in my future clearly and am ready to start a heroic journey to achieve my goals.”
- It means practicing courage like a lion by noticing your stress and anxiety, taking a short pause, and choosing new beliefs that help you feel better. Notice when you need to make a change and commit to it. Face your feelings, deal with any resistance, and have a backup plan ready.
- It is about building your own A-Team with a support system; you don’t have to face your fears alone. Friends, mentors, and colleagues can make a big difference in how you feel and act. Encouragement and advice help you remain motivated, on track, and accountable. The right team helps you move forward and keep going, even when times get tough.
- It means picturing where you want to go and how to get there. Make a plan and be honest and kind with yourself as you do. Creating a vision board can help you see your goals clearly and remind you of what you want to achieve.
- Engagement. It is about connecting actions to the goals and targets set forth. This is the personal playbook you put in place and use to handle the unknown by staying focused and learning as much as you can. Keep believing in your commitment and monitor your progress using the BRAVE acronym.
Being brave means picking beliefs that help you, noticing your feelings, asking for support, having a clear vision, and staying involved. The Brave Anchor is a tool to help you face fear and uncertainty as you grow and succeed. The BRAVE approach is what keeps me balanced, and I hope you find something useful here.
At times, I would use the visual depiction of a lion and believe I could, too, develop a killer instinct and survival mechanisms in fight-or-flight situations. Or just wander through my problems and understand I could be walking in a jungle with no navigation.
Creating visual depictions of ourselves can help us solve problems in different ways. Lions form strong bonds within their prides, working together or in pairs to protect their territory.
We can choose to leap forward, guard what matters, and build something new. Staying brave can give us the strength to do it.
