20 seconds of courage is all it takes to overcome most obstacles
This learning was blatantly lifted from the movie We Bought A Zoo, a movie which was significantly more powerful than I had expected. The main character in the movie (played by Matt Damon) drops the line "You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it" and it is a mentality I have found incredibly useful.
I have lost count of the number of times that I have used this as a starting point over the past couple of years - less to achieve something great or profound and more to tackle things that I don't want to do. It is surprising how many things I shy away from, how many hard conversations I don't have, how many things don't get completed, all because it's so hard to get started. It's been incredibly useful to simply say "20 seconds..." and suddenly I'm on the way to getting something done. It hasn't just helped me with big or significant things either - it has helped me to get annoying little tasks done, too (even getting out of bed in the morning!)
I will be upfront and say that in many ways my life is ridiculously easy and I have been very fortunate and privileged to have not had any serious major obstacles to overcome, for which I am very grateful. I am therefore more than happy to be challenged and corrected about whether this mentality is useful if there is something really significant going on. If it's too naive or simplistic for that, it was never my intention to belittle the struggles that I know many people have.
Having said that, I do believe that embracing the idea of "I'll just give this 20 seconds of courage" is going to be of some use in almost every situation - even if it's just to make a hard choice to start another day, to take on another round of treatment, to enter another counselling session or to persevere for a little bit longer.
For me, I want to keep putting it into practice because by this point in my life, I doubt I'm every just going to have the willpower or motivation to simply get some of these things done. I know how important they are though, so I'll keep taking them on 20 seconds at a time.
For me, I want to keep putting it into practice because by this point in my life, I doubt I'm every just going to have the willpower or motivation to simply get some of these things done. I know how important they are though, so I'll keep taking them on 20 seconds at a time.
Great post, Nate!!
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