Courage is greater than Confidence.

I am confident that for the majority of my life up to this point I believed that confidence was more important than courage. I know I used to stand on the stage in front of my students and preach that they should have the confidence to go and be bold. They should have the confidence to try out for the team. They should have the confidence to go ask the head cheerleader out on a date (haha, this one makes me laugh).

But I'm sitting here today thinking faster than I can type and asking the question, "why?" Why should we have confidence? In most areas of our lives, we are completely unqualified to be doing what we are doing. One could argue that me sending that 9th-grade boy over to the pretty girl's table and telling him to be confident in himself to ask her out...I was sending him to slaughter!

I wish I knew then what I know now...I would have led my students so much better! But seriously, what confidence does that young boy have to ask out the pretty girl? His voice squeaks, he's barely hit puberty, she is probably taller than him, and it's just not smart. He didn't need confidence, he needed courage.

You see...confidence is fleeting. We can be confident in one moment and then completely lack it the next. 

I remember the first time I spoke on the main stage at our church (there were about 3000 people there)...I wanted to throw up. But at the end of the day, I was pretty confident that I was going to crush it! But then, I found out that our Sr. Pastor was going to be in town sitting in the front row, he was even going to introduce me! I was FREAKING out!

Usually, he was out of town when guest speakers spoke. I instantly went from confident to lacking confidence in about 2.3 seconds.

What I'm realizing now, is what I thought was confidence, was actually courage! At the end of the day, God gave me a message to share with people. And nothing could stop me from delivering His word. And you know what? I did kill it that day. But I killed it with little confidence in myself. I killed it because I stepped on the stage with courage knowing that God was proving the confidence.

What does this look like for you? Where are you waiting for confidence, but really just need to grab hold of some courage?

I may not always have confidence in myself, but when courage shows up, something good always happens.

Let me give you three easy ways to conjure up some courage when you lack confidence...

1. Your passion must outweigh the problem.

My biggest struggle right now is my personal health. The problem is I eat bad a lot of the time and don't work out. My passion is that I want to be around for a long time for my wife and kids. Now, I still struggle and definitely haven't figured it out, but the pain of the workout can't be my biggest fear, it must be that my family could face a future without their daddy in it. I need the courage to show up, not the confidence to be awesome at it.

2. Stop thinking about the end result, just take the next step.

I can get all fired up about something in the moment, then I start putting a plan in place and think, "dang, this is going to suck!" Then I start talking myself out of it. So stop psyching yourself out! Just take the next step! The outcome is irrelevant to today. Without that first step, the 1000th step DOES NOT MATTER. Take massive immediate action. Today. 

3. Embrace failure, don't fear it.

When I think about all the things that make me who I am today that I'm proud of, they were all strengthed out of adversity. Every failure I've had in my life has led me to something greater. Now, it's easy to have that perspective today, because I'm not in it. But it's true. Coming up short can represent some of the greatest pains in our lives. But without them, we don't get to experience the greatest of success. Most of our world has settled for remaining comfortable and being complacent. They run from pain. But, the path to run from pain is a circle. They are going nowhere yet constantly feeling chased by something they don't want to face.

Today is January 19, for many, you've already been failing at your goals for this year, me included. What would March look like for us if we embraced the struggle, mustered up the courage, and jumped into the wave pool of discomfort? I know for me, my life would be so very different in all the best ways! 

Here's to getting uncomfortable in 2018! Who cares about confidence...you have courage!