We’ve all heard the phrase ‘life happens outside your comfort zone’, but how can we identify when courage is needed to push beyond comfort and how do we harness that courage? Inspired by Brene Brown, a professor who studies courage, vulnerability, empathy and shame and who has been responsible for the changing conversation around these emotions; we explore the notion of courage over comfort.

In essence courage over comfort, according to Brene Brown is having the courage to show up when you don’t know the outcome, it’s about leaning into the discomfort of the work without a focus on winning or losing, being comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable. When we look at courage over comfort it is also closely linked to vulnerability and failure, and how being open to both these things occurring in life we can harness courage. 

In a study Brene Brown determined that those with courage were ‘whole-hearted’ people, those that had the courage to be imperfect and have compassion for themselves before then having the ability to pass that along to others around us. She concluded from studying these ‘whole-hearted’ people that being uncomfortable was necessary for us to connect deeply with those around us and to let go of what we think we should be to become who we are. 

But when we’re vulnerable and try, it also means we will be open to failure. Removing the negative connotations of failure and instead embracing it as an inevitable part of life allows us to gain so much from life as we’ll be “in it” rather than being on the side line due to fear. As Brene says. “Being courageous is scary and terrifying but not as scary and terrifying as getting to the end of your life and  wondering what if I had shown up.“

Elizabeth Day’s podcast How To Fail is an incredible listen, where she interviews people from all walks of life on how their failures shaped their successes. Brene Brown features on the podcast, and on it she says “Success and failure travel together, let go of the fear of failure as with success comes failure. It's learning from those failures that’s the path of success.” Innovation & creativity can’t exist without failure. 

We should strip away the shame that comes with vulnerability, with being out of our comfort zone, with trying & with failing. Trying at something is the most commendable action. To try despite all the feelings associated and the possibility of failure, is choosing courage over comfort. 

We looked to further inspiring individuals to fuel our courage over comfort…

“I love the expression: always go the extra mile, it’s never crowded.  I believe that when you go the extra mile that’s where you find magic in your work. We have already achieved many things that have never been achieved in the skincare space before, and this is because we are prepared to never give up and always go the extra mile.” - Emma Lewisham 

 “Today I'll choose courage over comfort. I can’t make commitments for tomorrow but today I’m going to choose to be brave” - Brene Brown 

“Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.” —Maya Angelou

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.” —Mary Anne Radmacher