Courage is Calling by Ryan Holidayby Parker on TwosOur fear of what other people think, of embarrassment or awkwardness, is not the same fear that holds a man back from running into battle, but it is a limitation, a deficiency of courage that deprived us of our destiny all the same.You learn to stop thinking about what they think. You’ll never do original work if you can’t. You have to be willing not only to step away from the heard but get up in front of them and say what you truly think of feel. We don’t get to succeed privately.It’s ironic that for all of our selfish cares about ourselves, we seem to value other peoples opinions about us more than our own.When we are afraid, we can look up at those who came before us. We can visit the monuments they erected. We can read the documents they wrote. Because this is our tradition.The people who signed the Declaration of Independence weren’t doing it for glory, they were risking their lives if it didn’t work.“Don’t be afraid to need help. Like a solider storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you’ve been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?” - Marcus AureliusYou’re speaking up not for pity or attention but so the same thing doesn’t happen to someone else. You’re not looking to get an unfair advantage. You’re taking advantage of the opportunities and the protections that we’re designed for precisely the situation you’re in.When the student asks a question, what happens, they learn something they didn’t know. When the friend reveals a vulnerability to another, what happens? The friendship gets stronger when the employee admits the workload is too much, what happens? A hire is made and the company gets more efficient. When somebody has the courage to speak about something shameful that was don’t to them? Society is propelled into action. Someone can help them stop it. Sometimes just the ask itself is a breakthrough.We are as sick as our secrets. We are at the mercy of fears we dare not articulate, paralyzed by assumptions we refuse to put to the test.You won’t get what you’re afraid to admit you need.