Where Bravery Begins
How to make this year your bravest year yet. By Renee Zukin
When the world around us can feel like it’s falling apart, how do we continue to move forward with hope and courage? How to move forward when the demands of life seem stifling and the number of people struggling with anxiety is at an all time high? Can we find clarity and bravely walk tall into our future? Absolutely.
When life is fully in session it can be challenging (or even laughable) to imagine carving out time for yourself, let alone taking steps toward a dream that’s been tapping you on the shoulder. Between parenting responsibilities, job stressors, and figuring out what’s for dinner again, who has time to even come up with a new life blueprint? But creating change is possible, even when the uncertainties of life don’t show signs of slowing down.
The next best version of you isn’t interested in waiting for a clear schedule or a superhero to swoop in and save the day. Instead, it’s whispering to you during the quiet between meetings, it’s reminding you with the warmth of the sunlight on your face on a chilly morning walk. It’s in the micro-decisions you make daily that shift your boat one degree into a new future. How can I be so sure? Because I’ve lived it.
Bravery is a spectrum, not a personality trait
For much of my life, I believed that courage was something other people had. I was afraid of nearly everything and after I had kids, my capacity for worry expanded exponentially. I thought that bravery was reserved for those that appeared to confidently have it all together.
But once I stopped comparing myself to others, I was able to recognise the courageous ways I was already showing up in my life. As a mum of three working a full-time job, just getting out of bed some days was often an act of bravery. Volunteering to chaperone the class field trip took guts, and showing up to an unfulfilling job day after day was proof of my resiliency. But I didn’t always see it that way.
When I realised that bravery isn’t something you have or don’t have, everything shifted. I began to understand that courage and capacity exist along a spectrum and where you land on it can shift any given day, sometimes even moment to moment.
This perspective has helped me move along that spectrum — even while experiencing anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). And if you’re a parent, or moving through a relationship or job transition, the weight of that can keep anyone in survival mode. This doesn’t disqualify you from bravery, though. In fact, I’d argue that it makes you braver than you realise.
Creating a mindset shift
While it’s true that bravery often looks like a big, bold step. It can also look like slowing down, taking stock and tapping back into the parts of you that make you, well, you.
Many of us believe that courage is about doing more: taking massive leaps, reinventing ourselves, or achieving the kind of shiny success you often see on social media. But in reality, bravery begins with the simple (yet often challenging) act of slowing down.
Slowing down allows us to:
• Hear our own voice more clearly
• Tap into what’s working and what needs work.
“Consider what that first small step in the direction of your dream might be. That’s where bravery begins: with the willingness to take one actionable, accessible baby step forward.“
Rest and recalibrate
Then we are better equipped to make choices that align with who we wish to become. The one who holds boundaries and connects more deeply through honest conversations. The one who has more presence and joy when playing games with the kids or creating a project with a team at work. The one who can hold space for the hard stuff of life without letting it defeat you.
If we are courageous enough to slow down, to go inward, to understand that rest isn’t lazy or a luxury, but a necessity, then we will be more likely to see sustainable change over time.
The organisational shift
While big goals sound inspiring, they tend to keep us in overwhelm and inaction if not supported by the small steps it takes to get to the finish line. And, without having hours of uninterrupted time at your disposal, you’re going to need actionable steps that are achievable in just a few minutes a day.
Additionally, if we are looking about making this our bravest year yet, it is much easier to plan out each quarter of the year rather than the year as a whole.
Three months to focus on one thing — and then you get to evaluate, reassess and make changes as needed along the way. This allows you to focus on progress, not perfection, and take intentional steps toward meaningful change.
So ask yourself: What is the one thing that’s been tapping you on the shoulder but fear and self doubt keep getting in the way? Maybe it’s a new exercise routine, or taking up piano lessons? Maybe it’s starting a journaling practice, or signing up for a soccer team? Maybe it’s leaving your phone in the kitchen while you sleep, or finally texting that new friend for coffee?
Whatever it is, even if those voices of fear are telling you it’s not realistic or even possible, thank those parts of yourself working to keep you safe from imagined harm and let them know you’ve got it from here.
Then consider what that first small step in the direction of that dream might be. That’s where bravery begins— with the willingness to take one actionable, accessible baby step forward.
Most big changes I’ve made in my life started out this way. It wasn’t dramatic or complex, but the simplicity of:
• Asking for help when I was struggling
• Choosing rest over pushing through exhaustion
• Opening a notebook and writing a single paragraph
• Sending an email I’d been avoiding
A new path
These choices weren’t fancy, but they were fundamental to beginning a new path. They built up my resilience, added bulk to my bravery muscles, and as each step was completed the next became more clear, more attainable, and more exciting along the way.
We can underestimate the power of small, brave acts, but every time you decide to complete a task that gets you closer in alignment with the life you want — the stronger and more capable you will become.
So, I invite you to get curious about how you might transform your relationship with fear and show up with more self compassion, clarity, and courage.
Renee Zukin is a writer, former educator, mental health advocate and author of the new book Every Day, I’m Brave: Cultivating Resilience to Gain Freedom from Fear. Discover more at: reneezukin.com
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