Keys to Success - Courage

Courage can be defined as the ability to conquer fear or despair. Notice it is not the absence of fear. In fact, without fear, there can be no courage.

In January of 1982, an Air Florida flight crashed into the icy Potomac River. The banks of the Potomac were quickly crowded with rescue personnel and spectators, who were watching while helicopters were attempting to pull survivors from the river. One flight attendant was unable to hold onto the life preserver due to the affects of hypothermia and wasn’t going to survive. However, a man named Lenny Skutnik dove into the frigid water and pulled her to safety. Was Lenny Skutnik afraid to dive in that water? Of course he was. However, he overcame that fear and did it anyway because he was more afraid of something else. He was afraid that no one else was going to help her and she would die unless he acted.

Fear is natural, but it can paralyze you. The best way to avoid this ‘freezing up’ is to prepare your mind before you are faced with an attack. In Sanford Strong’s book, Strong on Defense, he states: “To break out of paralyzing fear at a time of violence, you must redirect or convert your fear of injury into primitive rage against your attacker.” Once you get mad, your attacker has lost his best weapon, the ability to control you with fear. This should not be mistaken for a lack of control. You must still be in control of yourself, but you have overridden the paralyzing fear with anger. This anger will cause you to act. You may choose to simply escape if possible or you may be required to defend yourself by fighting back.

There is another interesting aspect of courage. Rev. Billy Graham said: ‘Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.’ In other words, your courage may break others out of their paralyzing fear. This has been documented many times. On September 11, entire airplanes of people were controlled by only a few terrorists armed with knives. I don’t fault these passengers because the conventional wisdom at that time was compliance yielded the best results. As events unfolded on that day, we learned that is no longer true. Someone on another doomed flight that day decided they were going to act. We don’t know how many people were involved in fighting back, but we know several, if not many, were involved and that airplane did not make it to the destination the terrorists intended.

We hope we never have to use our Karate, but there are clearly times when it is justified. If you ever need to use it, the first part of the fight will be the struggle to break through the fear with courage. Be prepared to recognize that fear and work through it.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me. Psalm 23:4a

Donnie Chaffin,
3rd Dan