Creative Process

If I Only Had The Nerve

To engage with our work, our clients and our life with a creative ethic requires a degree of intentionality and…if you will…bravery. I’ve been thinking about cowardice lately because I’ve been confronted with friends, colleagues and Premium subscribers who are dealing with important life-changing decisions about career and work.

We all want to wear the title “brave”, I think, but so often we find ourselves in situations where our bravery is challenged. As I’ve been processing what I’ve seen happening around me, I think I have distilled cowardice into three distinct types:

1. Principled
Principled cowards hide behind rigid rules and religious-like conviction that is ultimately founded in their insecurity. They make decisions reactively, typically based upon whatever allows them to preserve their self-image and reputation. What might appear at first to be strong conviction is actually nothing but a mask to hide uncertainty.

2. Unprincipled
Unprincipled cowards are all about their own comfort and security. They’ll do anything to feed the deep abyss of their own hunger for affirmation and approval. They waffle, flip-flop and gravitate toward those who can improve their odds of “drafting” off of someone else’s success.

3. Aprincipled
Aprincipled cowards are the “opt-outs.” They are choosing to dis-engage rather than proactively work their way through a situation. They rationalize that they are “above” all of it and that they don’t need to be bothered by other peoples’ issues. This is often sourced in bitterness over not getting their way, depression, or a need to preserve self-image.

I have exhibited each of these types of cowardice in my life. I’m trying to be more and more aware of how my decisions are based on self-protection or reactivity rather than proactive choice (which is often a grey area.) One thing I do know is that the more consistent my actions are with what I really stand for, the more openly I create and the more free-flowing are my ideas.

Cowardice and fear are not the same thing. A good analysis of risk/reward is always necessary, and being afraid of failure is nothing to be ashamed of. The difference between cowardice and bravery, however, is how we choose to act when confronted with a decision.

Now…if I only had a brain.

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