Cultivating Courage in Daily Choices

In this empowering episode of the YTL Podcast, Michael Anderson dives deep into cultivating courage in your daily choices, revealing why small acts of bravery are the secret to a more fulfilling life. Discover the psychological and neurological science behind courage, including how it boosts life satisfaction by 23 percent and how you can rewire your brain to embrace discomfort. Michael shares practical, actionable tips like identifying comfort zone traps, setting micro-goals, practicing courage visualization, and using the "5-Second Rule" to overcome hesitation. Learn how courage is contagious, inspiring those around you, and why self-compassion is crucial for resilience. Drawing insights from Dr. Brené Brown and Nelson Mandela, this episode empowers leaders, entrepreneurs, and anyone seeking growth to make bolder choices and transform their lives one courageous step at a time.

Thank you for spending your valuable time with us. We truly appreciate your attention and support.

Stay connected with us everywhere! Click the link below to access all our platforms in one place:

https://linktr.ee/yourthoughtlife

Remember, you are enough, you can do it, and you are uniquely equipped to realize your goals. Let's continue this journey together!

Transcript

Mike v4: 0:01

Welcome to the show. Welcome to Your Thought Life podcast. I'm your host, Michael Anderson. If you haven't already, do take a few moments and leave us a rating and a review. It is incredibly helpful as we attempt to widen the amount of availability of this podcast to people seeking this style of content. I most certainly appreciate this act of kindness. Today we're talking about cultivating courage in daily choices, small acts of courage. Equal a tremendous amount of power. I wonder if you knew that research from the American Psychological Association shows that people who regularly practice small acts report a 23%. Increase in overall life satisfaction. That's not just the number family that's big enough for a good size wake up call every day. We're faced with choices that might seem minor on the surface, but each one is a chance to flex our courage muscle well. I had to flex my courage muscle a little bit this week. Had some significant challenges that stretched me well outside of my comfort zone. And I want to tell you that this talk today has a deep amount of self-reflection placed in it. I believe you're going to be incredibly blessed by this talk. Today, somebody's gonna say, but why does courage matter more than we think it does? I think that's a valid question. Courage isn't just about grandiose gestures and heroic acts. No, there's a practical element in the title. We're talking about cultivating courage for daily choices. Courage is about showing up for yourself even when it feels uncomfortable. In psychologically speaking, courage is linked to resilience and self-efficacy, which means that the more you practice it. The more you believe in your ability to handle whatever comes your way. You've heard of people ebbing and flowing with life. These are those people, and according to Dr. Brynn Brown, courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen. And that's the heart of it. When you choose courage, you are choosing growth over comfort. Lemme say that again. When you choose courage, you're choosing growth over comfort, and that is where real abiding transformation takes place. Of course, you know that. I'm going to provide for you some science. I would be remiss if I did not do so on an episode by episode basis. Courage is contagious. Studies show that when one person in a group acts courageously, others are more likely to follow. You've seen this situation probably several times. There's a big debate of some sort. Perhaps it's inside of the workplace, maybe the family element or some function that you participate in for leisure. And it's a difficult question. You speak up and share your insights and as a result of you speaking up, then everybody starts to sort of weigh in. It's the exact same situation here. This ripple effect. It not only can transform individuals, but it can transform teams and families and even communities. So daily acts of courage don't just benefit us. They inspire everyone around us, and I thought that was pretty cool. Moreover, neuroscience tells us that our brains are wired to protect us from discomfort. The amygdala, that little almond shaped part of your brain, it's always on the lookout for threats, but when you lean into discomfort and take courageous action. You actually start to rewire your brain, that's called neuroplasticity. And over time, your brain learns that you can handle risk, uncertainty, and even failure. And that is the birth of courage and a new habit. Let me tell you, this week, I had a set of circumstances in my life. That stretched me incredibly thin. So much so that I had to make mention of it in a short I needed to be released from it. And I feel like letting other people know that this topic has real day to day impact and it's. I believe very helpful for people to see folks like me who are in the encouragement camp going through the same sets of life circumstances as they are. With that, I want to share with you some practical tips, many of which I did to encourage myself. The earlier part of this week. I'm gonna give you three things that you can deploy immediately after hearing them. And I believe there will be a tremendous help in your personal development suits, particularly around this notion of cultivating courage for your daily choices. Number one is identify your comfort zone traps. These are areas where you tend to play it safe, where you may not wanna necessarily go outside your comfort zone. And maybe it's avoiding feedback, hesitating to do some networking. Or maybe it's just not asking for help like I used to do. You wanna figure it out? By yourself so you don't expose the fact that you don't know this particular thing. When you've done that work, write it down in your journal. We say in self-development that awareness is the first step. In the change cycle. So having a ready reference that you can go back and look at to identify these comfort traps, these triggers, these norms, I think is incredibly helpful for you as a foundational element. Number two, set micro goals. And what this means is I lived in Texas for. I don't know how long it's been, or it was 30 years. I don't want you to do this Texas style, right? It don't need to be big. It should be small like Rhode Island, right? We're not trying to overhaul our entire lives at once. And if you struggle with speaking up as an example, your micro goal for. Today is going to be perhaps something like share one idea in the next meeting or get together or meet up. If you avoid conflict like my spouse does, one of your micro goals might be to express your opinion calmly in a conversation without the emotional component. Why are we doing this? The small wins are what build the momentum. For us to have the courage that we need to make better choices daily. Number three, and this is going to round out the practical application section. I was really blessed by Mel Robbins when she popularized this technique called the five second Rule. If you've been stalling and you want a way to get out of stalling or hesitating or procrastinating, you can use this technique that she popularized the five second rule. Count down from five to one and then execute. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Execute. This interrupts overthinking and gets you into an action oriented mode before your brain can talk you out of it. I've been using this for, again, five, six years now, and it is effective even to get me outta bed on time in the morning. A real game changer. This is one of those things where we can't throw too much at you at once. We need to give you some bite-sized elements that you can deploy right away. I believe these three which are backed by science serve to do just that, to get you in a place where you can begin practicing this, to change this narrative, to bolster your confidence. When you begin doing this, no matter if you succeed or not, the mere fact that you're doing this, I want you to reflect and celebrate, reflect and celebrate. At the end of each day, jot down one or two encouraging things that you did no matter how small.'cause remember, we are building momentum. Through small deliberate acts, and this is going to boost our confidence so we can make better decisions without the procrastination, the hesitation, and the overthinking over time, what you're going to see is you can be brave and because you're seeing it, the cool thing is your subconscious is seeing it and you are literally becoming. A different person. Nelson Mandela famously said, I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but triumph over it. Let that sink in. Courage isn't about being fearless, family. It's about moving forward even when you're scared. I used to be incredibly afraid of public speaking, but when I learned how to do things scared, I had the opportunity then to get better. When I was paralyzed, I was stuck. I would strongly encourage each of you to take a look at what we've discovered today. And as homework pick one area where you've been holding back, maybe shrinking back, taking it easy. Find one small micro step that you can take. One little component that you can, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, execute. And remember, it doesn't have to be grand. It doesn't have to be huge. It's a micro step and do that and keep doing it until you get very comfortable with it. And as you become comfortable with that, add a little bit more to it. Until you can get into some larger ticket items. And what you're going to find is precisely what we said today, and that was. Deploy these techniques so that you can cultivate courage to make better daily choices without procrastination, without hesitation, and without overthinking. I want that for you so bad after what I went through this week. I hope this has been helpful for you. Thank you so much for being with me for today's episode. Do consider leaving us a rating and a review. It helps us tremendously attract more people seeking this style of content. You can connect with us through Link Tree. The link is available in your show notes. I would have you to know that you are enough, you can do it, and you are uniquely equipped to realize your goals. Until next time, take care and keep pushing forward. Okay.