Penny Casselman [00:00:00]:
Where are you not giving yourself credit for being courageous? Where are you discounting your power of choice? Courage is necessary in so many areas of our life especially when it comes to wanting a better future, a more exciting future. We have to be courageous and face those fears that are holding us back from choosing to move forward and experience something new. And again, I believe that courage is the foundation that underpins my 3 core ideas in having belief in yourself and being willing to take action and having a clear vision of where you want to be. You become unstoppable. Welcome to the pivot with passion podcast. Hi. I'm Penny Casselman. I believe everyone is deserving of a phenomenal life.
Penny Casselman [00:01:05]:
Regardless of where you came from, life is what you make of it. And when you learn to pivot with passion, your world explodes with opportunities. Go grab your favorite beverage, and let's shake things up as we explore how to pivot with passion. Hello, my friend. If you are new to this podcast, welcome. I am so glad you hit play. I hope that today, I help spark some insights, spark some belief, some vision for you for your future because I firmly believe every single one of us has a phenomenal future ahead of us if we choose to make it happen. For those of you that have been with me for a while, welcome back.
Penny Casselman [00:01:54]:
It's always a pleasure to have you. It's always a pleasure to slide into your ears wherever it is you may be, on a run, in your car, at the gym, or just sitting at home with your favorite cocktail or coffee. Today, I wanna talk about courage. And let me just start off by saying the definition of courage is this, the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, or pain without fear. My friend, I take exception to that. I completely disagree with that definition because I believe courage is what enables someone to face difficulty, danger, and pain, not without fear, but moving forward in spite of the fear. So it's not about you have courage when fear disappears. You have courage when fear is right in front of you and you are choosing to look fear in the eye and doing it anyway, lays the foundation for building confidence, which then allows you to call upon your courage in the future.
Penny Casselman [00:03:12]:
Now in episode 18, I will link to it in the show notes. I dove into this idea of a confidence competence loop where we're continually learning, reassessing, and trying new things, getting feedback, making modifications, which boosts our confidence, and in turn bolsters our courage to keep going through that circle. So today, I wanna challenge you to stop saying you can't and start asking yourself, how can I move forward in the face of fear? How can I summon that unshakable courage to move beyond the fear and experience something new, go after something I want, achieve a new goal? I know that we all have courage inside of us and maybe we're just out of practice calling upon it, leaning on it when we need to. And that's what I wanna dive into today. It's time for a clarity cocktail. Today's clarity cocktail comes from Andre Gide, and it says, man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. When I read this quote, it really hit home of the idea that courage is a choice. And without it, what might we miss? If we can't muster courage, we end up staying safe.
Penny Casselman [00:04:58]:
Right? We're in the harbor. We're on that boat. We can see where the shore is. We can get our bearings, and we know we're safe. But beyond us, the other direction is this massive opportunity to explore, to learn, to grow. And yet the only way we can get to this new and exciting area is to let go of our sight of the shore. And I believe this is a perfect illustration for settling for fun, which you all know, I believe is the worst four letter f word that no one talks about, and that is settling, accepting, being okay with a life of fine. And my friend, if you are listening to me right now, you are not one of those people.
Penny Casselman [00:05:56]:
You don't settle for fine. You are constantly looking for ways to improve, to create, to learn, to express yourself. It may take time. It may take a lot of effort, but you're moving the needle forward. So man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. This doesn't mean what you're letting go of needs to be some massive, big, cross the ocean kind of activity or effort. Losing sight of the shore can just be a couple miles out into the ocean. It doesn't mean you have to traverse the complete span of water.
Penny Casselman [00:06:44]:
So make no mistake that choosing courage can be in small acts as well. It's not just running into a burning house to rescue a dog. It does not have to be picking up, selling everything you own, and moving to another country. It could be as small as having the courage to ask for help. It could be as small as trying something new for the first time. Maybe it's just something off of a menu from your favorite restaurant. Exploration and courage are needed to grow as a human, to experience new and fantastic things that are out there, but we have to be willing to let go of the sight of the shore in order to make that happen. So my friend this week, think about where you might be settling for fine in your life.
Penny Casselman [00:07:46]:
What's one small act of courage that you could call upon to take you maybe a mile away from shore or 3 miles away from shore and find that courage to help you boost your confidence, move forward, and experience something new. So I'll leave you with the quote one more time. Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. Andre Gide. And now back to the episode. Cheers. Circling back to the idea that courage is the ability to take action in spite of your fear. I chose this topic because last week, I had a session with my high performance coach, and we were discussing the topic of courage.
Penny Casselman [00:08:40]:
And if you are new to the podcast, in 2017, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Fast forward to today, I am a thriver and doing well. But so many people in my orbit, friends, family, coworkers, would comment to me how courageous they thought I was. And I was sharing with my coach, I didn't feel that at all. I told her I did what I needed to do to survive, that I didn't have a choice, that I just did what needed done. And there was a long pause and she asked me, so Penny, based on that circumstance and what you experienced, are you telling me that an act of courage, you have no choice in the matter? My friend, I had to take a very long pause after she said that to me because she was completely correct in her assessment. But it went against everything I believe about courage, and that is you have a choice. Because without your ability to choose how you move forward, you will constantly settle for a life of fine.
Penny Casselman [00:10:03]:
Right? There has to be an act of courage to help move you forward and explore and grow. And so upon further reflection, I had to admit, yeah, I guess I was courageous in facing cancer and going through all the treatments and the surgeries and the wild unknown and all the stories that were circling in my head during that time. I chose at every turn to face head on whatever it was that was gonna come in my path. And I started thinking, do you do that? Have you ever done something and thought that wasn't courageous at all? It was just something I needed to do. I didn't have a choice. My friend, I am huge in the belief and I will say it over and over and over again, that we always have a choice. We may not like the choice. We may not like the options that are before us, but make no mistake, at every fork in the road, at every turn in our life, we have a choice.
Penny Casselman [00:11:16]:
For instance, you might think to yourself, I can't quit my job, and I will push back and say, oh yes, you can. You could quit today and walk away. Now, you may not like the consequences from doing that. You may not be set up to navigate what comes next, but know this, you have a choice. You are choosing to stay in your job, and that's cool. That was just the first concept that came into my mind, not telling anyone to go quit their job but we always have a choice even if we don't like what's on the other side. So I want you to take a pause today, and I want you to think of a time that you were courageous. I bet there are tons of times in your life where you were courageous but haven't given yourself credit for choosing to face your fears and move beyond them.
Penny Casselman [00:12:14]:
You may have thought like I did, I didn't have a choice. I just went forward and took on whatever was in front of me. But my friend, that was a choice. I chose to keep moving forward. Did I recognize it as courage in the moment? Not at all. Can I appreciate that? Oh, yes. I had armfuls of courage going through that experience. And I guarantee you have some of those same moments in your life.
Penny Casselman [00:12:44]:
So I'll ask again, where are you not giving yourself credit for being courageous? Where are you discounting your power of choice? Courage is necessary in so many areas of our life, especially when it comes to wanting a better future, a more exciting future, we have to be courageous and face those fears that are holding us back from choosing to move forward and experience something new. And again, I believe that courage is the foundation that underpins my 3 core ideas in having belief in yourself and being willing to take action and having a clear vision of where you want to be. You become unstoppable. And by exercising and acknowledging your courage helps feed that confidence competence loop and helps keep moving you forward to the phenomenal life that is waiting right in front of you. My friend, it is a choice. Every day, every week, you have choices. I want you to choose courage so that you can experience everything you want in life. My friend, know that I believe in you.
Penny Casselman [00:14:12]:
I believe in your power of choice. I believe you already have everything you need to move forward with courage and create a phenomenal life. I want you to feel empowered this week to acknowledge courage, to flex those muscles, and say, I'm okay with letting go of the shore, whether it's for 5 minutes, 10 minutes a week, find excitement in that exploration, fear, and courage. And I want you to give yourself a pat on the back for all the times that you have stepped up, looked fear in the face, and chose to move forward anyway. Until next week, my friend, I'm rooting for you, and I can't wait to chat with you again. Friend, thanks for listening to this episode of Pivot with Passion. If you've been feeling stuck, exhausted, or frustrated, this is your permission slip to go grab a red marker and claim the life you desire and deserve. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, and then hop over to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts.
Penny Casselman [00:15:35]:
Because my goal is to put a red marker in everyone's hand and I need your help to spread the word and make that happen. Until the next episode, go grab a red marker, Get excited for your future and make your first move to pivot with passion.
