Courage Will Save Your Life

Walking up the stairs… I felt terrible. It was late, 1AM, and I was in Germany.

 

“I’m here to learn German, to speak German… but I’m speaking hardly any at all. Why?”

 

That day, I’d spoken to 40+ people online for work, but none in German. My cousins speak English (and refuse to default to German with me) so I learn almost nothing at home.

 

I felt so down, so ‘pissed off’ that I wasn’t able to learn… I paused on the stairs.

 

“I’m IN Germany. Why didn’t I speak any German today?”

 

I really had to think about it:

 

• German people all around me.

• They all speak German.

• I’m not speaking any German…

• ??

 

Then, the light bulb clicked, and I turned back running down the stairs. Back in the street, I saw who I was looking for, 3 guys sitting at a Shisha bar.

 

I introduced myself (In German) told them I was from the USA and was trying to learn, and asked if I could sit with them. They said yes, we talked for 2 hours and soon enough between the conversation, alcohol and nicotine, I was buzzing!

 

They left at 3AM and I leapt back up those stairs and to the apartment, smiling ear to ear all the way to the 4^th floor.

 

Call It Courage

 

In those 2 hours, I improved my German more than I can in 2 weeks alone with a dictionary, or with my English-speaking cousins. (Yes guys, I’m very impressed you speak English so well.)

 

To call it ‘courage’, going to speak with strangers… seems a bit much, but I realized that if I don’t think of it as a courageous act, I won’t take it seriously enough to overcome my fear of doing it.

 

If you know you should do it, but you’re too scared to do it, and you therefore accept a much-worse reality (such as a reality where I never learn German!) then it’s a critical matter requiring courage. Don’t hide the fact that you’re afraid, perhaps terrified, to do the right thing behind a phrase like “I’m tired, I just don’t feel like it.”

 

You see, that was my problem. I didn’t want to admit that I was terrified to say ‘Hallo’ to someone on a safe street. But I was, and this fear was wasting weeks and perhaps years of my life and until I admit I need to be courageous, I will continue wasting my days, weeks, and months forever.

 

1. It takes a lot longer to learn a foreign language if you’re too scared to talk to strangers.

2. It takes a lot longer to get fit if you’re scared to push yourself while working out.

3. It takes a lot longer to grow a business if you don’t want to invest any of your own money up front.

4. It takes a lot longer to find a girlfriend if you never introduce yourself to women.

5. It takes a lot longer for that person to stop being an asshole if you don’t tell them about it.

 

You won’t die avoiding any of these things, but doing them might save weeks or months or years of your life. (In fact, you may never get the results otherwise.)