Courage means daring to be yourself, and daring to live the life you feel passionate about. But how can we find this self-confidence and motivation within ourselves? Because confronting the way others see you, and not conforming to their expectations, is difficult. That’s why I’d like to share with you 10 powerful tips that will help you be more courageous in life.

1 – Have courage: know yourself

Indeed, to have courage, it’s essential to know yourself.

What are your qualities and faults, your strengths and weaknesses?
What do you like about yourself? And what don’t you like? Why or why not?
What are your dreams and plans? What do you want to live and achieve in this life?
In fact, courage is knowing who you are, and maybe even deciding who you are.

Because, all too often, the people around us want us to have this or that dream.

In fact, there are too many expectations about you, and it’s up to you to be able to look inside yourself. What do you want for yourself? What do you really want?

Finally, to have courage, you have to know how to say “I” when everyone wants you to believe that it’s selfish, that you don’t have the right and that you’re disappointing them by doing so.

Remember, your life belongs to you. Have the courage to live it according to your own desires and dreams.

2 – Be proud of yourself

To have courage, it’s essential to stop waiting for people to congratulate us, to stop waiting for people to tell us that what we’re doing is good.

It’s all about congratulating yourself.

Because, all too often, others play games with us. They delay their congratulations, and we don’t realize that we’re giving them all the power over our sense of happiness and even over our level of self-confidence.

That’s why, if you want to have courage, stop expecting from others what you can give to yourself.

After all, you can and should be proud of yourself!

Maybe even your duty. Yes, because if you’re not proud of yourself, who will be?

Remember, you’re here on Earth to live the best life you can. In your own way.

In other words, you’re here not to denigrate yourself, but to love yourself.

So learn to pat yourself on the back every day. Make it a good habit on which to build strong, lasting self-esteem and self-confidence.

To do this, make a list of all your successes. See all the little progress you’ve made, all the little seeds you’ve sown.

3 – Have courage: be yourself

It’s quite possible that you tend to adapt to everyone else’s character. And that’s normal, because we’ve learned to avoid conflict and therefore to smooth things over, even if it means becoming someone else for a meal or a conversation.

So knowing how to be yourself doesn’t mean exploding in anger at the slightest thing, or trying to convince others at all costs that you’re right and they’re wrong.

In fact, to be courageous, we need to learn to say what we think, without imposing ourselves or denigrating ourselves.

In other words, to have courage, we need to realize that we have the right to exist and to take our place!

You even have a duty to do so, because the world evolves thanks to different opinions.

Difference feeds us! Even if many people seem to have forgotten this.

So have the courage to be different.

4 – Set yourself goals

To have courage, it’s essential to take matters into your own hands. In other words, stop waiting for things to change, for things to happen to you by chance.

In fact, to be courageous is to dare to move forward in life, to dare to live your dreams.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to have goals. All the time!

Goals that bring you joy, that make you progress.

To do this, answer this question: “What do I want right now? What do I want to do, to learn?”

Then go for it!

In other words, if you want to have courage, at least always have a goal.

5 – Have courage: move towards your goals

To have courage, it’s essential to move towards your goals. But moving towards your goals also means nurturing your courage.

In fact, it’s a virtuous circle.

In fact, the more you take action and feel you’re moving towards the goal that’s important to you, the more courage you’ll feel.

We don’t always realize it, because we fall asleep in routine and comfort, but having goals, having the feeling of moving forward, is the secret to being happy.

That feeling of looking forward to getting up in the morning, of having something important to do, to experience, to learn.

That’s why, to have courage, take action to move towards your goals.

They can be as small as simply learning a word of English if your goal is to become fluent.

Start somewhere, start small and start smiling!

The braver you get, the braver you’ll become.

Yes, courage takes muscle!

6 – Challenge yourself regularly

To be courageous, it’s essential to set yourself small challenges on a regular basis.

Challenges to have fun, but also to build up your courage.

The longer you stay in your comfort zone, the harder it is to get out.

In other words, set yourself a little challenge every month.

In concrete terms, every month, make a small commitment. It could be sporting, recreational or even aimed at improving your well-being.

Examples: do 20 squats a day, meditate for 10 minutes a day, draw for 10 minutes a day…

7 – Have courage: accept change

To be courageous, it’s essential to review our vision of change. Because, all too often, change scares us.

In fact, we find it hard to be flexible. We’re constantly in control, which wastes a lot of our time and exhausts us mentally and emotionally.

So learn to accept change.

As a first step, you can make a list of all the changes you’ve experienced over the last 3 years, changes you initially resisted, but which in the end turned out to be positive, or at least not as disastrous as you thought.

In fact, to have courage, it’s essential to understand that things change every day and that it’s our resistance that wears us down, because the changes themselves aren’t as bad as all that – sometimes, it’s even the opposite.

That’s why you need to learn to relax when change happens. First, welcome it. Then see what you can do to make it as positive as possible.

8 – Managing your emotions

To be courageous, it’s essential to know how to manage your emotions, especially sadness.

Because we tend to have trouble cheering ourselves up. And our sadness lasts for days, preventing us from enjoying life.

In fact, managing our emotions means understanding that they are temporary. Yes, it’s we who hold them back by mentalizing them.

Indeed, when we’re sad, we tend to look for the whys and wherefores, and when we find them, we turn into the “I’m so unlucky” victim.

Sadness, on the other hand, simply tells you that you’re experiencing a situation as a lack or as a bereavement, and that you need to take some time to reorganize yourself in relation to it.

In other words, to have courage, we must stop letting our emotions lead us by the nose. They’re useful and healthy. But when we let our minds get into knots, our emotions take hold and disturb us.

Accept that you’re sad and let the sadness go. Accept your anger and let it go.

Emotions ask us to take just a moment to listen to them, and then they go away.

9 – Surround yourself with the right people

To be courageous, it’s essential to surround yourself with the right people. Indeed, if we only rub shoulders with anxious and fearful people, it’s quite possible that we’ll become anxious and fearful ourselves.

So, I’m not saying to give up on all the people around us who have difficulty managing their anxiety and fears. I’m just saying that if you need to be brave about a situation, you need to hear positive, enthusiastic words.

Reach out to these people to boost your courage!

10 – Choose to be a courageous person

It’s normal to doubt yourself, it’s normal to be so afraid that you don’t know if you’re capable or even if you deserve to live this or that dream.

It’s normal.

And to have courage, to succeed in finding unshakeable self-confidence, it’s essential to remember what kind of person we want to be in this life.

Who do you want to be?

Do you want to be a courageous person, who dares to be herself and do the things that are important to her?

Then be brave. Overcome your fears one by one. Take the time to congratulate and encourage yourself.

It’s normal to be afraid.

Fear isn’t telling you that you’re not up to the task; it’s telling you that you’re about to learn something, and that it’s important.

Fear accompanies you so that you can give the best of yourself.

So don’t hide behind fear any longer – it’s no excuse. Be brave! Your dreams are right behind your fears. They’re worth it!

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover How to motivate yourself: 3 powerful steps to regain control of your life
Discover How to reach your goals: My 5 powerful tools

I recommend this inspiring book:

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The main character, Amir, is faced with the challenge of finding the courage to confront his past mistakes and seek redemption. The novel tackles themes of guilt, loyalty and the strength needed to face one’s demons.
What an interesting story! Well written, I enjoyed getting to know the life and ways of another country. This book expresses a lot of sadness, but also hope. The descriptions of his childhood, the things he saw, felt and heard are like anyone’s childhood memories.

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself