The word of 2022 needs to be Courage Part 1: What is Courage and Why you Need it
As I was reflecting on my reading list from 2021 , two things stood out. First, it’s a much shorter list this year. I only read 27 books. This was mainly because my family bought a farm, which required me to divert my time resources for three months away from reading and towards packing, moving, unpacking, and then restoring our full of potential fixer upper.
What I found in the books I read was a second theme. It was the use of a word that appeared throughout my reading. The word was unexpected because I read books on success in business and life, and the word that kept showing up is in my mind is reserved for slaying dragons, standing up for injustice, fighting illness, or battles in war. The word was courage. It was strategically placed on the pages of so many books I read in 2021 that I couldn’t chalk it up as a coincidence.
The word did not appear in the context of slaying the dragon, but in terms of not being afraid to do the right things or different things, knowing doing so will be hard and doing so will cost you. Here are a few examples
In some places, the word was used directly.
“Let’s encourage our children to be different, to have the courage to do what is right and the conviction to stand out in the crowd.” - Mark Merrill All Pro Dad “Courage is the ability to do the right thing, all the time, no matter how painful or uncomfortable it might be.” -Tony Dungy Mentor Leader.
“What does it take to capture the word’s imagination? Courage to start with. It takes guts to try to do something ‘insanely great,’ as Steve Jobs once put it. You have to know you’ll be criticized, maybe even mocked, for being different, for breaking the rules, for listening to yourself instead of listening to them.” - Alan Webber (possibly quoting Steve Jobs) Rules of Thumb.
In others, it was replaced with a synonym like the word brave.
“Life is not a popularity contest. Be brave and take the hill. But first, answer the question, what is my hill.”- Matthew McConaughey Greenlights
Sometimes the word wasn’t used at all, but the implications were obvious.
“You have to vault over your preconceived notions, over everyone else’s best practices, over the advice of all the experts and over your own doubts.” - Gary Hamel The Future of Management Talking about the courage needed to innovate and lead differently.
“Whether aware or not we are constantly navigating a path by deciding between our deliberate strategies and the unanticipated alternatives that emerge...it is easy to say to be open to opportunities as they arise”. It may be easy to say to be open to alternatives, but it takes courage to take the alternative path. - Clayton Christensen How Will You Measure Your Life
Or it was at the heart of an entire book.
One of the main concepts of the book No Rules Rules Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention is about having the courage to do hard things or as co-author Erin Meyer stated on why she wanted to study how Netflix operates, “This was a chance to find out how a company with a culture in direct opposition to everything we know about psychology, business, and human behavior can have such remarkable results.”
I got this advice while recording an episode for the If You Ask Betty podcast. After wrapping up recording, Betty said that I seemed very hesitant. I admitted it was because I was afraid that what I had to say would be unpopular. The message isn’t wrong, but it is a bit ahead of its time, and I was worried about how people would react. Instead of courage, I displayed trepidation.
You might say that perhaps lack of courage is a me problem. That the reason the word stood out to me was because I needed to hear it. After all, I admitted that at least in one instance, I fell short. I will admit that I could be more courageous at times and in certain situations. But I refuse to believe that the land of those who need to be more courageous is an island and its only inhabitant is me.
I think it is far more likely that from time to time, in certain aspects of our lives or with certain people in our lives, we all lack the ability to do the things we know will be difficult or dangerous because it is easier to avoid or ignore the urge, preferring instead for the problem to take care of itself or for someone else to have the courage to address it.
Here is why courage should matter to you.
There were lots of other repeated words in these books—words like culture, innovation, strategy, learning, authenticity, and even surrender.
And all of these books were written by great thinkers, about great companies/people who had achieved great results, and they were written to encourage the readers to achieve their own great things.
Plus, regardless of if the author was talking about winning at life, building a great business, raising up the next generation, or having better relationships, all of them explicitly stated or implied in such a way as to leave no room for doubt that to be successful in achieving the things most important to you; you will be required to do different things. To trade in today’s practices, even if you are experiencing success, for new practices that will lead to even better results in the future. Because the things you are doing today and the way you are doing them are directly leading to the results, you are achieving today. So if you want something different, you must do different things. And do not forget that making changes is hard and hard things take courage.
The journey towards living a better life and achieving better outcomes will require you to
Reconsider some long-held beliefs
Reestablish definitions of success
Recommit to helpful habits or eliminate unhelpful ones
Reflect on relationships
So that you can
Be open to learning new things
Be willing to take the long view on success
Be committed to building new skills (that eventually become new habits)
Be more empathetic, influential, and bold in relationships as you have tough conversations or lead the way into the new world
All of these things will require you to push past initial failure, discouragement, and dissent from those who have different views or, dare I say, have accepted the status quo as good enough.
You can also be certain you will experience various forms of discomfort (mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual) on your journey towards the better life and better outcomes you desire for you and your family.
If being different tomorrow than you are today in some aspect of your life is a goal, you will need to be courageous. You might have to
Be willing to speak truth to power, not to be a jerk or cause drama, but because what is at stake in sharing the truth, no matter to whom, is important enough to be brave and take risks
Be willing to be more authentic to who you are, to chase after your dreams, and become more of who you were made to be. Living on purpose and for the purpose of your life, even when doing so, might cause you to be canceled. A former colleague, Lauren Krasnodembski, wrote a book on this subject recently called Reclaim Your Power: A Guide to Allow Your Passions and Purpose to Discover You
Be willing to redefine what success means to you and then pursue it mercilessly, especially when it is counterculture to follow your definition of success.
Be willing to listen to opposing views and seek to understand not to be proven right or to prove the other person wrong. This may require exceptional courage when the opposing view might require you to challenge deeply held beliefs
Be willing to take calculated risks. Maybe starting a new adventure, bringing innovation to life, quitting, or starting something new. Since most new adventures come with uncertainty, they require you to stare failure in the face and to risk being wrong (or not as right as you thought). A friend of mine, Brian Bachand doubled down on evolving his company Evolution Evolution in 2021.
So What?
My encouragement to you is to consider these four questions so you can achieve great things in 2022.
What is the thing I want to do more, different, or better in the next year?
Maybe start by considering what area of your life you would like to see a change in
What is the benefit of making this change for me/my business/in the relationships that matter most to me?
Maybe start by considering why is this change important to me/my business/ in my relationships
How will I know I am succeeding in doing the thing more, different, or better?
Maybe set small goals along the way. Our brains benefit from experiencing success/rewards daily
How will I need to be courageous when overcoming the difficulties I will encounter?
Maybe start by considering what the difficulties will be and why they will be difficult for you
You can check out my reading list and summaries here.
In upcoming weeks I will be sharing a few more insights from my readings in areas that I anticipate will require many of us to be courageous in 2022.