WHO WILL BELL THE CAT

Being Courageous in A World of Cowards

This ever popular question comes from the popular story of rats living in a house that were constantly attacked by the cat that lived there. In a bid to combat this challenge, they held a meeting where it was suggested that a bell be tied around the neck of the ever stealthy cat. The bell would ring whenever the cat walked, alerting them of its movement. The great idea was lauded and cheered until one rat asked, “But who will bell the cat”?

Dead silence followed, for none of them was willing to take the chance and risk their life trying to bell the cat. All they lacked to complete the job was one with enough courage.

This story mirrors what is happening right now in a lot of places today. At offices, families, states, national level, and even in our individual lives. There are people with the grandest and best thought out ideas, but very few, if any at all, are willing to take the mapped out steps.

Courage, according to Merriam-Webster English Dictionary, is the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. This is often done with a goal in mind. Courage is being bold enough to take the first step in getting the task done, especially when it is a difficult task, and then you take the next step and the step after that.

Courage is an important ingredient for success. Nobody great achieved greatness without courage, for to be without courage is to be cowardly, and cowards do not last long in the place of success. Courage is also not a one-time adventure, it is a continuous process, and it has to be a conditioned nature of a person who desires. Imagine a team playing at the FIFA World Cup, and they only feel courageous at the group stage. They would very likely not go past that stage, that’s how it works.

The world is in dire need of courageous people. Look around and you would see. In government and politics, courageous people are needed to stop corruption and bad governance; in the military, courageous people are needed across various levels and ranks to end the multiple security challenges we face; courageous people are needed to revamp the economy and arrest the depression we are currently in. If we narrow the lens, we see that in our places of work and learning, only courageous people can change certain status quo that have existed for years and have lost their relevance. Imagine a company today that has no social media presence because there was no social media when they started off, they only communicate via email and calls? Odd right, but they still exist, because social media cannot be added to their budget.

With increasing advancement in technology and inventions, only people of courage can drive forward new ideas. They are the only ones who can control the crowd, stirring them in the direction of the new. This is often required by the leaders, and the truth is that courageous people easily become leaders, for if people cannot think for themselves, they are compelled to follow those who think for them, the courageous ones.

Whether the cause is a good or bad one, people of courage have always found a way of making their dreams come true, and all too often, the more courageous one is the more victorious.

If you are reading this and you don’t feel courageous enough yet, I’ll suggest a few steps you can take to build a life of courage.

1. Renew Your Mind

Courage doesn’t come overnight. You have to transform your mind by immersing yourself in certain practices that condition it for success. This is absolutely necessary as all journeys start from the inside. You have to flush out every feeling of cowardice by changing how you feel, think, and act towards things.

This is a lifetime process, and you have to be intentional about it. Cut off things that discourage you, things that make you feel little, things that make you afraid, or things that may have hurt you in the past.

2. Take Little Steps of Faith

Cultivate a habit for trying things out. Study, learn, practice, and display. Start small, grow big. Learn to engage in conversations, learn to read simple books, learn to be more polite towards people, learn to be more intentional about your growth, doing it all one little step at a time. You would find your confidence growing.

3. Attempt Big Things Occasionally

The little things you learn to do should mentally accumulate on your inside to prepare you to do bigger things. When you get comfortable at the new little things you’ve been doing, there will be times when you’ll feel the urge to stretch, to do more. It would be a call to take giant steps sometimes; to get your own car, start your own company, maybe even ask a girl out.

Whatever it is, this urge came because you had built the capacity for it in your mind already. All you need do is step out.

4. Repeat Over and Over

This goes two ways, two scenarios with the same instruction. Sometimes, the above listed steps work; sometimes they don’t, not immediately. The formula is hardly wrong, but there is the occasional exception to the rule. Whatever the outcome, repeat these steps. If it works, your confidence is built and you’ve made progress. If it doesn’t work, it’s probably because you missed something in your planning. Not to worry, review your plan, and try again. You will get it right.

Now you know how to build up your courage, and I’m trusting someone would be a lot braver after reading this. Let me know what stood out for you in this post, and if you have a story for us, mail it to us at twwblog1@gmail.com

Stay safe!