No matter what is currently floating around in your head, you can influence whether or not your ideas will remain dreams, or whether or not you decide to take the courage to put them into practice and achieve the career success you want.

The following seven tips will help you to be more courageous in your professional life and enable you to create a strong vision with which you can strategically pursue your own goals:

1) Courage is the foundation

Without courage, every new step is a challenge and consumes energy.

Those who fail to acquire courage in the 21st century will be determined by others and unfree and cannot evolve according to their talents.

Maya Angelou, the American poet, singer and civil rights activist brings it to the point it:“Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without courage you cannot consistently practice any other virtue. You can practice every virtue unpredictably, but nothing is consistent without courage.”

In a rapidly developing world, it is extremely important to see courage as the driver of your visions and goals. There is courage in every one of us, we just have to discover it, train it and little by little, over time, we will become more courageous.

2) Create your vision and set the right goals

In order to use your courage in a target orientated manner, first create a strong vision and understand your motivation behind it. Don't just leave the vision to theory, but visualise your dreams and goals as clearly as possible. Use all your senses to experience all the different facets of your vision as if it had already happened.

SMART goals will help you to realise your vision. Although most people know the SMART formula, in practice a lot of people struggle to really make it work for them. 

As a reminder, SMART stands for:

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Achievable

R - Realistic

T – Time-Bound

When you define your goals using SMART you automatically ensure that they are precisely contained, that you can measure them repeatedly and that they are attractive enough to encourage you to stay on the ball.

Make absolutely sure that the goals are achievable i.e. realistic, otherwise you will quickly lose your motivation. Last, but not least, it is essential that you set a clear deadline for achieving your set goals.

Don’t forget the ‘Courage Test’. Question each objective, what could your vision look like if you were even braver? Would this goal still be SMART?

In the beginning your comfort zone will resist, but that's okay. This is how you start to train your “Courage” muscles.

3) Follow a strategy

Setting a clear strategy is essential when pursuing your goals, otherwise you will quickly lose your way.

Do you recognise this scenario? You take a city trip, the weather is beautiful and there is a lot to see - a real sensory overload!

Where to start? You have quite a few goals in the form of interesting sights, but you need a good plan so that you can visit all the places in adequate time. Those who do not have a strategy in place usually miss the majority of sights and wander aimlessly around the city. That is exactly what shouldn't happen, right?

Therefore, an intelligent, motivating strategy, followed by a concrete action plan is the key to achieving your goals.

4) Make an action plan

Why? How? What? When?

These questions give you structure and help you to define a clear path. If you regularly ask yourself “why?”, you will always be reminded of your initial motivation.

This is crucial in order to work sustainably on your goals and to continue to pursue them, even if things are not going so well.

5) Perseverance and persistence

Courage, goals and strategic orientation are one thing, however without perseverance we cannot realise our dreams.

Fortunately, we can train our stamina as well as our muscles, this makes us strong in the long term and allows us to pursue our goals with discipline and commitment. As already mentioned, the two basic principles to help maintain your perseverance and persistence, are to remind yourself repeatedly why the achievement of the goal is important to you, to have a healthy dose of self-confidence and a “can-do” attitude.

In addition the acceptance that traps and setbacks are simply part of the experience is also a great bonus. Get the encouragement and support you need along the way. 

6) Self-efficiency

Being self-efficient is most important in order to be successful in life.

Self-efficiency is the confidence in one's own knowledge, the confidence to face challenges and to acquire knowledge - in short, to be self-efficient. Especially these days, when it is more and more important to continuously educate yourself and go new ways, self-efficiency is an incredibly important quality.

Being self-efficient means empowering yourself to act. It is allowing yourself to acquire knowledge and skills and the ability to recognise your own strengths and know your USP (unique selling proposition).

Working on your own potential and weaknesses can increase self-efficiency. Self-efficiency promotes courage and vice versa.

7) Fitness

What does fitness have to do with our professional success?

A whole lot! Because body and mind are closely related. We often only relate fitness to physical fitness. It is important to be physically fit, but it is not enough. Very successful people are holistically strong and fit. In order to be holistically fit, we need mental and emotional fitness. 

Those who regularly work on the balance between physical, mental and emotional fitness ensure a healthy balance and can provide the body and mind with the necessary energy.

Boost your fitness and achieve a higher level of self-esteem and self-efficiency by doing regular exercise, yoga, meditation, practicing mindfulness, being happy, laughing often, relaxing, thinking positive, establishing healthy sleep habits and more…

At takethecourage.com, we can help you to finally reach postponed goals, to seize opportunities and to abandon negative beliefs. Would you like to develop your personality further and generate more courage to improve your professional life? Join our community! To achieve your goals participate in our master class "A Year Full of Courage".

Take the courage to move forward.