“Courage!  What makes a king out of a slave?  Courage!  What makes the flag on the mast to wave?  Courage!  What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk?  What makes the muskrat guard his musk?  Courage!  What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder?  Courage!  What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot?  What puts the “ape“ in apricot?  What have they got that I ain’t got?“ said the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz.

The answer: COURAGE

The dictionary defines courage as “the ability to do something that frightens one” and “strength in the face of pain or grief” or “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.”

Reading those definitions its easy to see why to accomplish anything amazing in life it is going to require courage. It’s going to require that we push past our fears, we keep going when things go wrong, and we have the strength to keep moving ahead no matter how hard it may seem in the moment. Because only then can we learn the lessons we will need to learn in order to accomplish greatness. Only then can we discover that we are capable of doing things that once appeared to be impossible. Courage is the key to becoming all we can be – COURAGE!

Don’t be a cowardly Lion when you are meant to be a King! The only difference between those two? The answer: COURAGE

BE COURAGEOUS!

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )