Courage!

Not quite two weeks ago, I decided to pursue happiness even if that pursuit meant giving up the security I currently enjoy. This decision did not come easy for me and I find myself inclined to second-guess it even though in my heart I know it is the best decision I could make. I am, perhaps quite understandably, afraid to leap into the unknown (you can read my reflections on the subject here).

But (as I wrote before) I am unwilling to be ruled by fear. As Winston Churchill said, "Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision." The reaction is appropriate—there are real risks if you Leap Before You Look—but decisions should be based on more than just fear.

Still, fear has kept me from implementing the decision I've made. The next step can't be taken while I hold onto the handrail of current security, but I've hesitated to let go. In fact, I'm still hesitating, though I think the time for hesitation is past. More and more urgently I find myself prompted by my conscience to "cut the cord" that both binds me to an unsatisfactory situation and provides me with a sense of security. Until I do—until I take real action, until I burn that bridge—I will find it too easy to "settle" for what I have rather than reaching for what I crave.

Ambrose Redmoon wrote, "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." There's so much that I want, that I look forward to, that I hope for, that is more important than fear, that courage is my only recourse. It's time to 'screw my courage to the sticking place' and trust that 'I will not fail.'

C.S. Lewis said, "You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream," and Anais Nin wrote, "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." Both those quotes—in fact, all the quotes I've cited today—resonate with me. It's time to cut the cord, to burn the bridge, to take that leap of faith, to toss the dice with everything on the line. Goodbye tenure, goodbye home-ownership, goodbye illusion of safety...

Hello possibility, hello liberty, hello infinity.