What IS courage?

I’ve been getting increasingly curious... mainly because I talk about it a LOT. I talk about how, when I reflect on ‘young Tiff,’ she thought she was courageous for doing the things that scared other people (while artfully dodging the stuff that really scared her). Solid little facade, really.

I talk about how the world seems to throw being fearless and being courageous into the same bucket, when really, they’re just second cousins who rarely show up at the same family function… because if you take fear out of the equation, courage kinda ceases to exist. I talk about all the things I reckon have to come into play to be courageous. And yet, I still wasn’t satisfied with my own understanding of it.

So off I went on a bit of a quest… and found Professor Cynthia Pury to help encourage a deeper understanding #SeeWhatIDidThere. Cynthia’s a Professor of Psychology and a pioneer in the study of courage, with her work widely cited across personality and positive psych.

Oh, and that thing I used to do? Turns out there’s a name for it. It’s called accolade courage, as opposed to process courage - which is actually doing the scary thing. So there you go.