The Courage Playbook

3Step Three: Getting It Right—The 3 GOs

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

—Winston Churchill¹

In the best and worst of times we need to deeply understand the answer to the question: What is courage? Courage is singular but multidimensional. It is essential in life and vocation. It is unifying and is composed of many parts.

Courage is important because it gives us a heroic narrative in the unique pathway of our life. It leads to a courageously stable and coherent identity that overcomes our fears and equips us to be our true best self.

In practice, courage is a verb. As an ability, it is indifferent to background and status and is available to all. In reality, courage is a set of observable actions and becomes our key human competence when we practice its behaviors. Courage is moral prowess; it does the highest right thing. We need courage to be free of the dictatorship of our fears and to live freely and confidently without incessant anxiety. Courage equips us to do our best without the prohibitive costs of self‐centeredness.

Most vitally, courage develops in us a strong, admirable, noble, and even heroic character. Courage is constructed and character is sustained by how we treat principles, humans, society, and existence and how we deal with the challenges of a world that blooms with innumerable tests.

Courage is grand but is expressed in humility. It is not an end in itself; we practice and ...