Margaret Spence defines courage as the willingness to act despite fear, with examples like asking for a promotion and speaking up in meetings. She asks you to identify one moment where you need courage now, then take a bold action today.
Day 16 of the 30/30 Career Transformation Challenge. We are more than halfway through the month. For those of you who are joining me for the first time, my name is Margaret Spence, and I'm the founder of the Employee to CEO Project and the 10X Leadership Academy for Women. If you've listened to the other videos, you know that I'm spending the month of September asking you to look at your career differently. I'm asking you to take bold risk this month by asking yourself 30 bold questions, questions to make you think about where you're going with your career a little bit differently. So today's bold question is, what does courage mean to you? Where are you courageous? Are you courageous? Courage is something that is deep within us. Every day that you walk into work and every day that you walk into the world, you're walking into the world with courage. But I'm wanting to ask you this in terms of your career: where are you being courageous? This is what courageous could look like. There's a position that I really want to have. There's an advancement or a promotion that I want to have, but I'm scared to death to ask my boss for that position. I'm scared to put my name in the hat. Or courage could be, I'm the one who doesn't speak up in meetings. I'm competent. I know what I know. I know that I can answer the question, but because I'm shy, because I'm an introvert, I don't put my hands up and say that I know the answer. For women especially, we have to find courage. It's courageous for you to get into the meeting and somebody not expect you to speak and you open up your mouth and you put out all this data and they're surprised and shocked that you have it within you, that's courage. Courage is pushing through fear. Courage is knowing that you're fearful, that you're afraid to make a mistake, but you push through and do it anyway. For me, the courageous thing that I'm doing is putting myself out here for this 30-day challenge. That was my method of courage, because I could easily hide behind everything I know and never tell the world what I have inside of me, what I want to give out in terms of a message to you. So how do you find courage? How do you find courage to push through the fear, to push through all of your insecurities and be bold by asking for what you want? I'm asking you today to evaluate moments when you needed extra courage. Evaluate moments when you needed tiny courage. Evaluate moments when you needed to be courageous as you champion yourself, because it takes courage to ask for what you want. It takes courage to speak up in a meeting. It takes courage to push through fear. I want you to find courage today. Put courage in the middle of your hands. Put courage right here in your hands and say, "I can be courageous right now. I am a courageous person, and I'm gonna find my courage the next time I have fear and the gremlins of fear is back here. I'm gonna find the courage to push through." Just like I'm asking you to be courageous with your career, Get out of your comfort zone. Leave the comfort zone behind. Boldly step into what you want. Find the courage. That's today's bold question: What can you do to be courageous now? Thank you for joining me for the 30/30 Challenge. It's been an amazing 16 days. If you like this video, share it with someone that needs it. Thank you, and we'll see you tomorrow. Day 17! Yay! Thank you.
