Do You Know Where You Are Going?

“Success is never final and failure never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”
~ George F. Tilton

Mark Twain told us that “Courage is mastery of fear—not absence of fear.” That makes sense. Fear is the culprit that enables courage to spring forward. If you have no fear, then logically there can be no real courage.

Sergeant Alvin York of Tennessee was a US Medal of Honor winner in WWI. He was also a man with a religious conviction against the taking of life, which is a big part of war. While excelling in his basic training and receiving high marks from his commanding officers, it was really unclear whether or not he would fight when his company landed in Europe.

While on patrol one day during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, with a mission to silence an enemy line of guns, after taking several prisoners his patrol became pinned down by enemy machine gun fire. Men were dropping quickly all around him and it seemed destined that all would be killed or captured.

York suddenly took command since he was the highest-ranking soldier still able to fight. He worked himself free and eventually positioned himself so he could attack the machine gun position in a manner that the enemy would have to show themselves to fire on him. York was able to kill 25 enemy soldiers and with the remainder of his unit to capture an additional 130 prisoners.

Once returned to the American lines, while investigations began into the complete story surrounding this remarkable feat, York was asked what made him do it. In modest words, he replied that he did it to save lives. He was in fear of losing his life but acted with instinct to insure that lives on both sides were saved. He mastered his fear but did not lose sight of that fear.

Now for most of us, we will never be faced with such hostile fear challenges. However, our fear of accepting unknown responsibilities or even making crucial life changes, for example, could be as fearful in our own individual mindset. Fear is a real crippler if we allow it to embody our mind and soul. However, when we allow courage to lead our offensive, it can open the door to enable our wildest dreams to come true. As James Allen said, “Whether you be man or woman you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.”

Most of life’s interactions demand courage to make those interactions complete. We must never fear failure but must have the courage to try. Only then will we understand what it takes when we step forward in courage and see our fears set aside and accomplishment come to life. That is a feeling that every one of us should strive to bring forth in our lives. You see, courage is more than navigating fear. It is the true essence of reality that elevates our life to unparalleled levels of accomplishment.