“Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway!”
Those are the words of the old tv and movie cowboy John Wayne. Sometimes saddling up is about not letting yourself get pushed around.
As I sat in a small town shoe store waiting patiently for my wife, I watched as a woman picked up a tennis shoe off the clearance rack and take it to a clerk to ask a question. While she was gone another lady came and picked up the other shoe and examine it. She tried it on and seemed to like it.
As the first woman with the single shoe came back the second lady literally took it out of her hand and said, “Oh, you have the other shoe. Thank you! This will be great for horseback riding.”
You could see the frustration on the lady who had seen the shoe first as she turned to her friend with a look on her face that said, “What? I can’t believe you took that right out of my hand!” But not a word came out of her mouth to the filthy shoe snatcher.
The shoe snatcher self-assuredly sauntered off with both sneakers and the box to the cash register.
After the lady with the new shoes was out of earshot the shoeless lady turned to her friend and said, “Can you believe that just happened? She just took it right away from me and I had it first! Why do I always let that happen? I want to punch her in the face for being so confident and punch myself for not standing up to her!”
As they walked off they continued to discuss the lady’s boldness and her lack of courage. Just before she was out of earshot I heard her say again with great consternation, “Why do I ALWAYS let that happen?”
We all have opportunities to be courageous every day. Simply standing up for yourself is an act of courage if you don’t do it very often. When you learn to stand up for yourself in a simple shoe store confrontation you can learn to stand up in even greater and more difficult situations.
In what area of your life do you need to saddle up today? What small steps can you take to stand up for yourself and begin to cultivate courage?
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
Looking for a speaker for an upcoming event? I’d love to be that guy. You can reach me at dave@cultivatecourage.com or 952-200-7499.
You can now buy the book “Cultivate Courage” on Amazon! https://amzn.to/2N2PBVJ
