July 22, 2025 • 13 mins
In this empowering episode of the YTL Podcast, Michael Anderson dives deep into cultivating courage in your daily choices, revealing why small acts of bravery are the secret to a more fulfilling life. Discover the psychological and neurological science behind courage, including how it boosts life satisfaction by 23 percent and how you can rewire your brain to embrace discomfort. Michael shares practical, actionable tips like identifying comfort zone traps, setting micro-goals, practicing courage visualization, and using the "5-Second Rule" to overcome hesitation. Learn how courage is contagious, inspiring those around you, and why self-compassion is crucial for resilience. Drawing insights from Dr. Brené Brown and Nelson Mandela, this episode empowers leaders, entrepreneurs, and anyone seeking growth to make bolder choices and transform their lives one courageous step at a time.
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Remember, you are enough, you can do it, and you are uniquely equipped to realize your goals. Let's continue this journey together!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike v4 (00:01):
Welcome to the show.
Welcome to Your Thought Lifepodcast.
I'm your host, Michael Anderson.
If you haven't already, do takea few moments and leave us a
rating and a review.
It is incredibly helpful as weattempt to widen the amount of
availability of this podcast topeople seeking this style of
(00:21):
content.
I most certainly appreciate thisact of kindness.
Today we're talking aboutcultivating courage in daily
choices, small acts of courage.
Equal a tremendous amount ofpower.
I wonder if you knew thatresearch from the American
(00:45):
Psychological Association showsthat people who regularly
practice small acts report a23%.
Increase in overall lifesatisfaction.
That's not just the numberfamily that's big enough for a
good size wake up call everyday.
(01:08):
We're faced with choices thatmight seem minor on the surface,
but each one is a chance to flexour courage muscle well.
I had to flex my courage musclea little bit this week.
Had some significant challengesthat stretched me well outside
(01:29):
of my comfort zone.
And I want to tell you that thistalk today has a deep amount of
self-reflection placed in it.
I believe you're going to beincredibly blessed by this talk.
Today, somebody's gonna say, butwhy does courage matter more
(01:51):
than we think it does?
I think that's a valid question.
Courage isn't just aboutgrandiose gestures and heroic
acts.
No, there's a practical elementin the title.
We're talking about cultivatingcourage for daily choices.
(02:11):
Courage is about showing up foryourself even when it feels
uncomfortable.
In psychologically speaking,courage is linked to resilience
and self-efficacy, which meansthat the more you practice it.
The more you believe in yourability to handle whatever comes
your way.
(02:32):
You've heard of people ebbingand flowing with life.
These are those people, andaccording to Dr.
Brynn Brown, courage starts withshowing up and letting ourselves
be seen.
And that's the heart of it.
When you choose courage, you arechoosing growth over comfort.
(02:55):
Lemme say that again.
When you choose courage, you'rechoosing growth over comfort,
and that is where real abidingtransformation takes place.
Of course, you know that.
I'm going to provide for yousome science.
(03:15):
I would be remiss if I did notdo so on an episode by episode
basis.
Courage is contagious.
Studies show that when oneperson in a group acts
courageously, others are morelikely to follow.
You've seen this situationprobably several times.
(03:38):
There's a big debate of somesort.
Perhaps it's inside of theworkplace, maybe the family
element or some function thatyou participate in for leisure.
And it's a difficult question.
You speak up and share yourinsights and as a result of you
speaking up, then everybodystarts to sort of weigh in.
(04:01):
It's the exact same situationhere.
This ripple effect.
It not only can transformindividuals, but it can
transform teams and families andeven communities.
So daily acts of courage don'tjust benefit us.
(04:22):
They inspire everyone around us,and I thought that was pretty
cool.
Moreover, neuroscience tells usthat our brains are wired to
protect us from discomfort.
The amygdala, that little almondshaped part of your brain, it's
always on the lookout forthreats, but when you lean into
(04:47):
discomfort and take courageousaction.
You actually start to rewireyour brain, that's called
neuroplasticity.
And over time, your brain learnsthat you can handle risk,
uncertainty, and even failure.
And that is the birth of courageand a new habit.
(05:13):
Let me tell you, this week, Ihad a set of circumstances in my
life.
That stretched me incrediblythin.
So much so that I had to makemention of it in a short I
needed to be released from it.
And I feel like letting otherpeople know that this topic has
(05:36):
real day to day impact and it's.
I believe very helpful forpeople to see folks like me who
are in the encouragement campgoing through the same sets of
life circumstances as they are.
With that, I want to share withyou some practical tips, many of
(05:59):
which I did to encourage myself.
The earlier part of this week.
I'm gonna give you three thingsthat you can deploy immediately
after hearing them.
And I believe there will be atremendous help in your personal
development suits, particularlyaround this notion of
(06:21):
cultivating courage for yourdaily choices.
Number one is identify yourcomfort zone traps.
These are areas where you tendto play it safe, where you may
not wanna necessarily go outsideyour comfort zone.
And maybe it's avoidingfeedback, hesitating to do some
(06:46):
networking.
Or maybe it's just not askingfor help like I used to do.
You wanna figure it out?
By yourself so you don't exposethe fact that you don't know
this particular thing.
When you've done that work,write it down in your journal.
We say in self-development thatawareness is the first step.
(07:09):
In the change cycle.
So having a ready reference thatyou can go back and look at to
identify these comfort traps,these triggers, these norms, I
think is incredibly helpful foryou as a foundational element.
Number two, set micro goals.
(07:31):
And what this means is I livedin Texas for.
I don't know how long it's been,or it was 30 years.
I don't want you to do thisTexas style, right?
It don't need to be big.
It should be small like RhodeIsland, right?
We're not trying to overhaul ourentire lives at once.
(07:54):
And if you struggle withspeaking up as an example, your
micro goal for.
Today is going to be perhapssomething like share one idea in
the next meeting or get togetheror meet up.
If you avoid conflict like myspouse does, one of your micro
(08:15):
goals might be to express youropinion calmly in a conversation
without the emotional component.
Why are we doing this?
The small wins are what buildthe momentum.
For us to have the courage thatwe need to make better choices
daily.
(08:36):
Number three, and this is goingto round out the practical
application section.
I was really blessed by MelRobbins when she popularized
this technique called the fivesecond Rule.
If you've been stalling and youwant a way to get out of
(08:56):
stalling or hesitating orprocrastinating, you can use
this technique that shepopularized the five second
rule.
Count down from five to one andthen execute.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Execute.
(09:17):
This interrupts overthinking andgets you into an action oriented
mode before your brain can talkyou out of it.
I've been using this for, again,five, six years now, and it is
effective even to get me outtabed on time in the morning.
(09:39):
A real game changer.
This is one of those thingswhere we can't throw too much at
you at once.
We need to give you somebite-sized elements that you can
deploy right away.
I believe these three which arebacked by science serve to do
just that, to get you in a placewhere you can begin practicing
(10:02):
this, to change this narrative,to bolster your confidence.
When you begin doing this, nomatter if you succeed or not,
the mere fact that you're doingthis, I want you to reflect and
celebrate, reflect andcelebrate.
(10:24):
At the end of each day, jot downone or two encouraging things
that you did no matter howsmall.
'cause remember, we are buildingmomentum.
Through small deliberate acts,and this is going to boost our
confidence so we can make betterdecisions without the
(10:48):
procrastination, the hesitation,and the overthinking over time,
what you're going to see is youcan be brave and because you're
seeing it, the cool thing isyour subconscious is seeing it
and you are literally becoming.
A different person.
(11:08):
Nelson Mandela famously said, Ilearned that courage was not the
absence of fear, but triumphover it.
Let that sink in.
Courage isn't about beingfearless, family.
It's about moving forward evenwhen you're scared.
(11:28):
I used to be incredibly afraidof public speaking, but when I
learned how to do things scared,I had the opportunity then to
get better.
When I was paralyzed, I wasstuck.
I would strongly encourage eachof you to take a look at what
(11:52):
we've discovered today.
And as homework pick one areawhere you've been holding back,
maybe shrinking back, taking iteasy.
Find one small micro step thatyou can take.
One little component that youcan, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, execute.
(12:19):
And remember, it doesn't have tobe grand.
It doesn't have to be huge.
It's a micro step and do thatand keep doing it until you get
very comfortable with it.
And as you become comfortablewith that, add a little bit more
to it.
(12:39):
Until you can get into somelarger ticket items.
And what you're going to find isprecisely what we said today,
and that was.
Deploy these techniques so thatyou can cultivate courage to
make better daily choiceswithout procrastination, without
(13:01):
hesitation, and withoutoverthinking.
I want that for you so bad afterwhat I went through this week.
I hope this has been helpful foryou.
Thank you so much for being withme for today's episode.
Do consider leaving us a ratingand a review.
It helps us tremendously attractmore people seeking this style
(13:23):
of content.
You can connect with us throughLink Tree.
The link is available in yourshow notes.
I would have you to know thatyou are enough, you can do it,
and you are uniquely equipped torealize your goals.
Until next time, take care andkeep pushing forward.
Okay.
Welcome to the show.
Welcome to Your Thought Lifepodcast.
I'm your host, Michael Anderson.
If you haven't already, do takea few moments and leave us a
rating and a review.
It is incredibly helpful as weattempt to widen the amount of
availability of this podcast topeople seeking this style of
(00:21):
content.
I most certainly appreciate thisact of kindness.
Today we're talking aboutcultivating courage in daily
choices, small acts of courage.
Equal a tremendous amount ofpower.
I wonder if you knew thatresearch from the American
(00:45):
Psychological Association showsthat people who regularly
practice small acts report a23%.
Increase in overall lifesatisfaction.
That's not just the numberfamily that's big enough for a
good size wake up call everyday.
(01:08):
We're faced with choices thatmight seem minor on the surface,
but each one is a chance to flexour courage muscle well.
I had to flex my courage musclea little bit this week.
Had some significant challengesthat stretched me well outside
(01:29):
of my comfort zone.
And I want to tell you that thistalk today has a deep amount of
self-reflection placed in it.
I believe you're going to beincredibly blessed by this talk.
Today, somebody's gonna say, butwhy does courage matter more
(01:51):
than we think it does?
I think that's a valid question.
Courage isn't just aboutgrandiose gestures and heroic
acts.
No, there's a practical elementin the title.
We're talking about cultivatingcourage for daily choices.
(02:11):
Courage is about showing up foryourself even when it feels
uncomfortable.
In psychologically speaking,courage is linked to resilience
and self-efficacy, which meansthat the more you practice it.
The more you believe in yourability to handle whatever comes
your way.
(02:32):
You've heard of people ebbingand flowing with life.
These are those people, andaccording to Dr.
Brynn Brown, courage starts withshowing up and letting ourselves
be seen.
And that's the heart of it.
When you choose courage, you arechoosing growth over comfort.
(02:55):
Lemme say that again.
When you choose courage, you'rechoosing growth over comfort,
and that is where real abidingtransformation takes place.
Of course, you know that.
I'm going to provide for yousome science.
(03:15):
I would be remiss if I did notdo so on an episode by episode
basis.
Courage is contagious.
Studies show that when oneperson in a group acts
courageously, others are morelikely to follow.
You've seen this situationprobably several times.
(03:38):
There's a big debate of somesort.
Perhaps it's inside of theworkplace, maybe the family
element or some function thatyou participate in for leisure.
And it's a difficult question.
You speak up and share yourinsights and as a result of you
speaking up, then everybodystarts to sort of weigh in.
(04:01):
It's the exact same situationhere.
This ripple effect.
It not only can transformindividuals, but it can
transform teams and families andeven communities.
So daily acts of courage don'tjust benefit us.
(04:22):
They inspire everyone around us,and I thought that was pretty
cool.
Moreover, neuroscience tells usthat our brains are wired to
protect us from discomfort.
The amygdala, that little almondshaped part of your brain, it's
always on the lookout forthreats, but when you lean into
(04:47):
discomfort and take courageousaction.
You actually start to rewireyour brain, that's called
neuroplasticity.
And over time, your brain learnsthat you can handle risk,
uncertainty, and even failure.
And that is the birth of courageand a new habit.
(05:13):
Let me tell you, this week, Ihad a set of circumstances in my
life.
That stretched me incrediblythin.
So much so that I had to makemention of it in a short I
needed to be released from it.
And I feel like letting otherpeople know that this topic has
(05:36):
real day to day impact and it's.
I believe very helpful forpeople to see folks like me who
are in the encouragement campgoing through the same sets of
life circumstances as they are.
With that, I want to share withyou some practical tips, many of
(05:59):
which I did to encourage myself.
The earlier part of this week.
I'm gonna give you three thingsthat you can deploy immediately
after hearing them.
And I believe there will be atremendous help in your personal
development suits, particularlyaround this notion of
(06:21):
cultivating courage for yourdaily choices.
Number one is identify yourcomfort zone traps.
These are areas where you tendto play it safe, where you may
not wanna necessarily go outsideyour comfort zone.
And maybe it's avoidingfeedback, hesitating to do some
(06:46):
networking.
Or maybe it's just not askingfor help like I used to do.
You wanna figure it out?
By yourself so you don't exposethe fact that you don't know
this particular thing.
When you've done that work,write it down in your journal.
We say in self-development thatawareness is the first step.
(07:09):
In the change cycle.
So having a ready reference thatyou can go back and look at to
identify these comfort traps,these triggers, these norms, I
think is incredibly helpful foryou as a foundational element.
Number two, set micro goals.
(07:31):
And what this means is I livedin Texas for.
I don't know how long it's been,or it was 30 years.
I don't want you to do thisTexas style, right?
It don't need to be big.
It should be small like RhodeIsland, right?
We're not trying to overhaul ourentire lives at once.
(07:54):
And if you struggle withspeaking up as an example, your
micro goal for.
Today is going to be perhapssomething like share one idea in
the next meeting or get togetheror meet up.
If you avoid conflict like myspouse does, one of your micro
(08:15):
goals might be to express youropinion calmly in a conversation
without the emotional component.
Why are we doing this?
The small wins are what buildthe momentum.
For us to have the courage thatwe need to make better choices
daily.
(08:36):
Number three, and this is goingto round out the practical
application section.
I was really blessed by MelRobbins when she popularized
this technique called the fivesecond Rule.
If you've been stalling and youwant a way to get out of
(08:56):
stalling or hesitating orprocrastinating, you can use
this technique that shepopularized the five second
rule.
Count down from five to one andthen execute.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Execute.
(09:17):
This interrupts overthinking andgets you into an action oriented
mode before your brain can talkyou out of it.
I've been using this for, again,five, six years now, and it is
effective even to get me outtabed on time in the morning.
(09:39):
A real game changer.
This is one of those thingswhere we can't throw too much at
you at once.
We need to give you somebite-sized elements that you can
deploy right away.
I believe these three which arebacked by science serve to do
just that, to get you in a placewhere you can begin practicing
(10:02):
this, to change this narrative,to bolster your confidence.
When you begin doing this, nomatter if you succeed or not,
the mere fact that you're doingthis, I want you to reflect and
celebrate, reflect andcelebrate.
(10:24):
At the end of each day, jot downone or two encouraging things
that you did no matter howsmall.
'cause remember, we are buildingmomentum.
Through small deliberate acts,and this is going to boost our
confidence so we can make betterdecisions without the
(10:48):
procrastination, the hesitation,and the overthinking over time,
what you're going to see is youcan be brave and because you're
seeing it, the cool thing isyour subconscious is seeing it
and you are literally becoming.
A different person.
(11:08):
Nelson Mandela famously said, Ilearned that courage was not the
absence of fear, but triumphover it.
Let that sink in.
Courage isn't about beingfearless, family.
It's about moving forward evenwhen you're scared.
(11:28):
I used to be incredibly afraidof public speaking, but when I
learned how to do things scared,I had the opportunity then to
get better.
When I was paralyzed, I wasstuck.
I would strongly encourage eachof you to take a look at what
(11:52):
we've discovered today.
And as homework pick one areawhere you've been holding back,
maybe shrinking back, taking iteasy.
Find one small micro step thatyou can take.
One little component that youcan, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, execute.
(12:19):
And remember, it doesn't have tobe grand.
It doesn't have to be huge.
It's a micro step and do thatand keep doing it until you get
very comfortable with it.
And as you become comfortablewith that, add a little bit more
to it.
(12:39):
Until you can get into somelarger ticket items.
And what you're going to find isprecisely what we said today,
and that was.
Deploy these techniques so thatyou can cultivate courage to
make better daily choiceswithout procrastination, without
(13:01):
hesitation, and withoutoverthinking.
I want that for you so bad afterwhat I went through this week.
I hope this has been helpful foryou.
Thank you so much for being withme for today's episode.
Do consider leaving us a ratingand a review.
It helps us tremendously attractmore people seeking this style
(13:23):
of content.
You can connect with us throughLink Tree.
The link is available in yourshow notes.
I would have you to know thatyou are enough, you can do it,
and you are uniquely equipped torealize your goals.
Until next time, take care andkeep pushing forward.
Okay.
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