Faith Creates Courage over Fear

Courageous people fear undesirable outcomes, but they believe that they can either avoid those outcomes or succeed despite setbacks. Courage is the result of faith combined with desire.

There are at least 3 kinds of faith: (1) in a higher power, (2) in one's abilities, and (3) in the countermeasures a person has planned. Let's look at each of these:

Faith in a higher power: Spirituality can increase one's faith. Quiet time in prayer or meditation helps greatly. In the song "Wild Child", Enya sings: "Only take the time from the helter-skelter. Everyday you find everything's in kilter. You don't need a reason; let the day go on and on." Depending on your religious beliefs, you can work on improving your relationship with your creator, with nature, with other people, or with yourself, to increase your spirituality and your faith.

Faith in one's abilities: Experience can increase one's faith. Practice might not make perfect, but it does increase self-confidence.

Faith in one's countermeasures: Worry is always about undesired outcomes. By writing those outcomes down, one can plan things to do either to (A) make the outcome less likely, or (B) plan one's response if the undesired outcome happens. Preparation is one of the primary ingredients of courage.

For example, job hunters preparing for interviews might (1) invest time in their spiritual growth, (2) practice in front of a video camera several times, watching the recordings between each session in order to learn from them, and/or (3) anticipating as many questions as possible and planning answers for each one. Their faith will increase with preparation.

To summarize: Preparation, practice and spirituality increase faith. If your desire is also strong, you can have enough courage to do what needs to be done despite your fear. The goal is not to eliminate fear, but to have the courage to act in spite of it.