Courage

​“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
― Winston S. Churchill

From time to time I plan to identify and expand upon a few virtues that I believe to be essential to success and found helpful in the desire to live a meaningful life. I’ve decided to address twelve of such attributes this year. The first one that makes my short list of ‘most important’ is Courage.

Winston Churchill seems to be experiencing quite the renaissance these days. I suppose there are lots of reasons why, but recent films, books, and TV series have chosen to feature him prominently at this particular moment in time. He was, in his own time, an extraordinary leader at a similar pivotal moment in world history. The world found it’s teacher at just the precise moment of uncertainty and indecision.

Among many, what lesson did a grateful world learn? In this quote, He indicates that action is what matters most. Outcomes are the result, not an action in and of itself. Outcomes represent the past and leave it to historians and critics to judge their quality and importance. The action represents the present, and therefore, the only thing of which we have complete control.

What drives that action? Courage. The courage of knowing that a sincere truth will never be false.

So, here's the question we need to ask ourselves today: In spite of past outcomes, what do you have the courage to continue? Are you doing it? Why, or why not?

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