Selectively Courageous by Meghan Genge

"It's hard to be brave when you are a Very Small Animal." A.A. Milne

13 years ago with only a single backpack and £300 in my wallet, I got on a plane for England. I was so afraid to go that I couldn't even hug my parents goodbye at the airport. I knew if I did I would start crying and not stop all of the way over the ocean. When I tell people that story, part of me still can't believe that I did it - Me - the person who is afraid of so many things. The people I tell always shake their head and tell me how brave I was. I wasn't brave because I have more courage than anyone else. On the contrary! Instead I was brave because I had decided to be.

Fast forward 13 years and you have the same me now living in the UK with her English husband. Looking back I know that I was brave because I needed to be somewhere else to get where I needed to be in life. A great big leap of faith needed to happen to shift me to a different place. But that is where I get confused. Why could I be so brave then and follow that dream when my manuscript languishes in my hard drive because of my fear? Why could I throw caution to the wind and move continents but I am afraid to let myself write what wants to be written? Why am I selectively courageous?

I'm not going to tell you that your dreams need you to be brave, or that you must take that leap or any of those guilt-inducing sentences. Instead I am going to ask you to think about one moment in your life when you were truly brave. We all have one. Just being alive and getting through the day sometimes takes immense courage. Thinking about that moment I want you to know deeply that you are brave - you have proven it to yourself - and that you can call on that courage at any time. And maybe, when the time is just right and you are really ready for a big leap of faith, you will choose to be courageous and it will change your life.

xo

Megg is a writer, a seeker and a believer in magic.