“Courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own” – Michelle Obama

The Hollis Company definitely lived up to the words of the former First Lady when they decided to pull off its first virtual, courage-themed RISE x LIVE conference. The conference featured 10 keynote speakers and 9 hours of amazing content. I’ve learned long ago to not doubt the Hollis family, but geez did they overdeliver and show up for their community of supporters. RISE x LIVE was interactive, energetic (note the sweaty title image–if anyone starts counting down from 5, get ready to launch out of your seat!), and filled with note-worthy information (I have several, several pages of notes to prove it). Definite worth the ticket and spot on my May Bucket List! The event showed just how contagious courage could be. 

Here are 3 of my big takeaways from the RISE x LIVE conference:

Fear is normal but the story is not over

Fear is normal. In fact, the oldest (evolutionarily speaking) part of our brain is wired for fear. Brit (Beans) Barron focused her keynote on the idea that fear is a normal emotion that is not mutually exclusive from other emotions. Meaning, that you can experience fear, excitement, pain, hope, despair, and joy–all simultaneously. Not only are you allowed to be a human with complex emotions, but you are allowed to feel them as well! It’s through the “negative” emotions and experiences that we can really revel in and appreciate the positive one. 

One of the keys to processing fear is to know that the story is not over. Think back to a hard season or a challenge you faced in your life. No matter what it was you faced, we all have one thing in common–we’re still here. You can get through hard things and you’ll have to keep facing opposition in life. It will help you grow and make you into the person that you are meant to be if you let it. Find a way to keep chasing your dreams and have hope that just like all of the other challenging times in your life, you’ll make it through this one too. 

Courage is a decision

How many times in life have you thought that if you could just find the courage, you could take the leap? Among many working titles, I almost called this blog post “finding courage” and I realized the flaw in that thinking. Courage isn’t hiding from you. Instead, you have to choose to be courageous. John Maxwell compared choosing courage to choosing to open a door inside of you. You have to make the decision to be courageous and only you can open the door. Similar to Beans’ commentary about the story not being over, Maxwell agreed that you have to have the courage to continue; the courage to keep the story going. Like a muscle, the active choice to be courageous has to be made every day in order for it to build.

Try adding “I choose to be courageous” or Eric (ET-The Hip-hop preacher) Thomas’ “I can, I will, I must” to your affirmation list as a reminder that you can decide to be courageous every day. 

What heroes and warriors have in common

Children around the world dream of becoming a hero. If you’re Rachel Hollis, then you choose to become a warrior. Turns out that heroes and warriors have a lot in common when it comes to courage! Donald Miller believes that everyone should strive to be in hero mode (as opposed to the villain or victim) in the narrative that is their life. Heroes face challenges often and things go wrong for them all the time. What distinguishes a hero from a victim is that despite opposition and adversity, they keep getting back up to face the challenge which often leads to transformation. In fact, Miller believes that courage (and the point of life) is to keep playing the hero until you can become the guide. For reference, guide energy is found in someone who wants to see (and helps!) budding heroes win and has successfully faced that challenge themselves.

Similarly, a warrior trains every day and prepares for battle. Rachel Hollis conceptualized the idea that a warrior knows that it’s going into a fight and is going to be hit with challenges. However, instead of accepting defeat, a warrior takes what it learns from that battle and uses it as something to train on the next day. It takes a lot of courage to be a hero and a warrior. More importantly, it takes belief in yourself and the willingness to get back up when things get hard.  

This post is dedicated to my mom (my hero!) and all of the other nurses who are actively demonstrating what courage looks like to the world in the midst of crisis. Thank you for being our everyday heroes. Happy Nurses Day.