Inspirational Story 3: Nelson Mandela – A Lesson in Courage

There’s a story about loved ones that would assemble for holidays and special affairs and prepare a beef roast. Each time they’d prepare it they’d prepare it the same way. They’d take the roast and lop off both ends and set it in the pan. This was a custom that was handed down from mother to daughter to daughter, etc., until one day, one of the daughter’s husbands asked her, “Why do you lop both ends off the roast?” She responded that her mother had always done it that way, “Let’s go ask her.”

Then they went and asked her mother, and she answered that it was because that’s the way her mother had always performed it. They chose to ask grandma and she answered, “Because that’s the way my mother always served it. I don’t do it that way any longer; we only did it that way because the only pan we had was too small to hold it.”

Seek the falseness in the fear that you have harboured. What rules have you determined for yourself? What rules do you follow that are rooted in the past but are now obsolete? Do you prefer to keep living by them? You’re the selector.

3. Dedicate yourself to courage. Announce the deeper truth. Persistently reprogram yourself for success and brave actions. Remember that eminent love and great accomplishments demand great risk.

Sense the fear and do it anyhow. Respect your courage. Take action.

Respect yourself every time you face a fear. Particularly the little ones.

When you have admitted its only fear keeping you back, you can proceed through it like a brave warrior.

Parachutes weren’t shown trustworthy by having individuals carry them around on their backs. The device proved its worth once somebody jumped.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Nelson Mandela used this quote in one of his most famous speeches; although he never claimed it as his own, many have erroneously attributed it to him. It comes from Marianne Williamson but nevertheless, he will be remembered for it and he lived his life in a way entirely consistent with its message.