Courage is Calling

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Introduction

Courage. It’s a virtue we all admire, yet one that often feels just out of reach. We celebrate stories of audacious heroes who stare down danger without flinching. But when it comes to summoning our own bravery, we falter. Fear holds us back. Doubt paralyzes us. We make excuses, play it safe, or talk ourselves out of taking that leap. But what if courage wasn’t some lofty ideal, reserved only for the bold and the brave? What if, as Ryan Holiday argues in his book Courage is Calling, it’s a choice we can all make, an everyday practice we can cultivate?

In this thoughtful meditation on bravery, Holiday recasts courage not as an extraordinary feat but as an innate human capacity available to us all. Blending philosophical insights with historical anecdotes, from the battleground to the boardroom, he lays out the simple steps we can take to overcome fear and act with conviction. Courage, Holiday reveals, comes from recognizing that fortune favors the brave, and from taking that critical first step into the unknown.

Courage is Calling issues a rousing call to action. With this essential guide, we can find the heroism in our own stories and live lives filled with purpose, meaning and courage.

All Bravery Is the Same

Let's start with a story. Story of The legendary Hercules! You know, the super strong Greek demigod? Well, turns out he wasn't just a big tough guy. He was also super virtuous and made some courageous choices way back when. According to legend, one day when Hercules was just a young boy, he was offered a choice. Down one path was a super-tempting woman, considered by Greeks to be a goddess, promising him a life of ease and pleasure. Anything he wanted, boom, done. A sweet deal, right? Down the other path stood a plainly dressed woman offering him a life of struggle and hardship. Not as fun, sure, but with a chance for glory if he stuck to the virtue path. You can imagine he was tempted by door number one. Who wouldn't be? But after thinking on it, he knew in his heart that the tough road was the right road. So he manned up and chose hardship over convenience. Even though it would've been so easy for him to take the soft life, he wanted his life to mean something. So Hercules picked the rocky road and all the toil and trouble that came with it. And that choice - to pursue glory through adversity - is why he's remembered. His legend has lasted ages. The iconic Greek hero was the epitome of courage. Why? Because he willingly chose the hard road when he could've had it easy. He signed up for deprivation and danger! And that's what courage is. It means willingly sweating, hurting and sacrificing for something bigger than yourself. He also shows us that courage comes in many types. When he picked the tough path, he displayed moral courage. But Hercules also demonstrated physical courage over and over by risking life and limb battling mythical monsters. Isn't that how we split courage, as well? Moral and physical. Moral courage means acting by your conscience, even if it goes against the world. Whistleblowers have this in bulk - they spill the tea because their morals demand it, they don't fear getting criticized and shunned. Physical courage is for soldiers and firefighters who put their lives on the line. Their bodies, not reputations, are in peril. Seems like a nice distinction, right? But why this distinction? When you get down to it, courage is courage. Sometimes it is displaying grit when times get rocky. Other times...

Reason Defeats Fear

This four-letter F-word is the archenemy of courage. Yup, we're talking about fear. Fear is the weed that chokes out bravery. It makes us quit instead of being courageous and turns us into a bunch of scaredy cats. The ancient Greek word phobos sums it up. In Greek mythology, Phobos was the personification of fear or panic. In fact, "phobia" is derived from Phobos! Ironically, we can't find that inner strength and be gutsy, unless we're actually facing our fears first, right? Like, how else can you be courageous if there's nothing to fear? So, courage isn't about being immune to fear. Courage is about moving past fear! It means recognizing risks but forging ahead regardless. The brave still feel the fear, they just don't let it boss them around. They see the dangers but say "I got this". They know how to put fear in its place. The question is, how do they do it?Simple! When fear comes knocking, just take a chill pill and think it through. Shine the cold light of logic and reason on those fears and see what shakes loose. Often, what seemed scary in panic seems less spooky in the light of calm understanding. In short, don't just accept your fears at face value! Interrogate them, cross-examine them, put them under a microscope! Break it down point by point. Are those fears legit or just ghosts in your mind? Maybe some are valid. But other fears might just be overreactions. It’s like that old Greek tale of Pericles and his troops. Gather round for another story! Pericles was a big time Greek politician and strategic general back in the day. He was elected to run Athens again and again - basically a superstar statesman. So one time Pericles is commanding his troops and a nasty storm rolls in. Thunder booming and winds howling. Well his soldiers totally freak out thinking this storm means terrible luck is coming. But Pericles was calm as a cucumber. He tells his men to relax and watch this. Pericles grabs two big boulders and bashes them together, mimicking the sound of thunder. Pericles didn't know meteorology but he knew enough science to demystify the storm. The thunder was just noise from clashing winds, like his clashing rocks. Just like that, Pericles taught his troops to keep calm and carry on. He broke fear down to facts with logic and...

When Fears Are Defined, They Lose Their Sting

Fear loves to cloud your thinking and make threats seem bigger and badder than they are. It's a master exaggerator and distorter! Under fear's influence, your mind turns every creak into a burglar and every headache into a brain tumor. But, if you learn to see your fears clearly and they lose their formless, magnified power over you. Think about it. When something seems hazy and ill-defined, it's way scarier, right? But if you can see the sharp edges and real shape of something, you can size it up and usually realize it ain't so bad. It's the same thing here. So what's the move when vague fears have you shook? Lean into them. Get comfortable with discomfort. Stare your fears down and really examine them. Delimit them - find the boundaries, get clear on the details. That's how you shrink the shadowy and uncertain down to size. Once you clarify the true dimensions of something, you can assess if it's really worth all the hype fear gave it.The Stoics knew what was up - face your fears and define them before they define you. Side note: The ancient greco-roman philosophy of Stoicism believed, among other things, that fear is a product of our mindset. So, when life got scary, they didn't run away in fear. Instead they stared those fears down, and got to know them real well. Famous philosopher Seneca came up with premeditatio malorum i.e. the premeditation of evils. Which basically said you gotta premeditate the evils - imagine all the bad stuff that could happen. By getting familiar with the fears, you take away their power to freak you out. It's like getting punched - if you see it coming it doesn't hurt as much as a sucker punch you didn't expect. So be proactive and prepare yourself for the worst, cause that's how you handle adversity like a boss. The modern day version of premeditatio malorum is what entrepreneur Tim Ferriss calls fear setting. Want an example? John D. Rockefeller used to practice fear setting. He was always asking himself "What if my oil wells run dry?" In other words, what's the plan if my paper stack disappears? By envisioning the worst case scenario, Rockefeller stayed ready to bounce back from anything. The point is meditating on your fears can stop you from freaking out too much at the eleventh hour. When you define those...

How to Build Courage from Scratch

Forget everything you thought you knew about courage. It doesn't have to be big and flashy like in the movies. Real courage starts small, with tiny steps so ordinary you barely notice. But when tiny courageous acts become a habit, you snowball into your boldest self.Take Florence Nightingale. She didn't wake up one day and set out to dive into treacherous medical missions abroad. She started small - volunteering at a local hospital for just one summer. No big deal, right? But it was her first step toward nursing, toward something meaningful. As a well-bred English lady back in the 1800s, she was expected to follow a bunch of strict rules about how proper young women should behave. Taking care of sick people as a career? That was seen as totally inappropriate for someone of her social standing. Doing what she did, took courage. And she had it! She stepped toward her calling despite feeling scared and uncertain. Those itty-bitty steps compounded, transforming Florence from a nervous volunteer into an unstoppable revolutionary. She was so right when she said “Never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small.”However, at the same time, don't wait around until you feel totally brave and sure. That hesitation will kill your courage. Thomas Edison provides this contrasting perspective. He was always drawn to take on big, bold leaps rather than wasting time on small steps. He was more about just diving into the hard stuff right away - he figured life's too short to agonize over every little thing. He wanted the big, tricky projects that really got his gears turning! Now, don't think his style and Florence's are totally at odds. We can make them work together! After all, both require courage, right?So, baby steps, people! Even Aristotle preached this. Virtues like courage are gained gradually, through small acts over time. Just like builders gain skills by building daily, and harpists by plucking those strings every day. Same with bravery - start small, and let it grow. You don't have to jump into something incredibly bold and courageous right off the bat. Baby steps that build confidence are cool too! But make sure those little steps are at least pointed toward something epic you may wanna tackle someday.Now you know how easily you can build courage. And as you'll see in the next segment, courage is also quick - sometimes a...

Courage Is Choosing The Right Thing In The Heat Of The Moment!

Hold onto your seats, folks, because this section is about to take a sharp turn! We're jolting back to October 1960, when a courageous 60-second phone call changed the course of history forever.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was just trying to grab a bite at a department store restaurant in Atlanta. But because of the color of his skin, he was snatched up like a criminal! Now the southern authorities already hated this guy, so they saw their chance when they had him in custody. No bail! Trumped up charges! A four month date with hard labor on a chain gang! Surely a death sentence for a man who only wanted lunch! His panicked wife had one desperate move to save her husband from a vicious lynching. She appealed to John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon - political enemies, but united in needing the Black vote. It was also a double-edged sword as helping King could affect their vote bank in the southern states. Would these cunning politicians have the courage needed to free King, or condemn an innocent man to vicious brutality? The decision would expose their true characters, and reshape American politics.Things got even MORE dramatic! Turns out Nixon was actually tight with Dr. King and had led civil rights reforms! He had every reason to save his buddy's skin! But when decision time came? Crickets! Meanwhile, Kennedy seized the moment! First he rang up the Georgia governor laying down the law. Then he called Mrs.King personally to say her man would go free. At the same time, he unleashed his brother on that Alabama judge to pressure MLK's release! And it worked - King walked out of that jail cell! Even wilder, he made sure everyone knew Kennedy took the political risk to save him while Nixon flaked. Just a month later, Kennedy narrowly nabbed the presidency by a teensy 35,000 votes! A few simple but gutsy phone calls tipped the election. While Nixon abandoned his pal to rotten luck, Kennedy made the morally right AND politically savvy move.Just think - Nixon could've shown the same backbone in a minute or less. But he allowed his rival to showcase superior courage! So you see, displays of courage don't always have to be drawn-out, epic endeavors. More often than not, a simple yet bold action, statement, or decision is all it takes to stand up for our beliefs,...

The Courage of Selflessness

How is it we all know the icon that is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, but barely anyone has heard of Stanley Levinson?! Let us fix this wrong today! Levinson was the genius wordsmith ghostwriter behind countless iconic MLK speeches that stirred our souls! He also orchestrated money moves funding the movement. He did it humbly from the shadows, lifting up his friend to fame and fanfare, never seeking shine. Unfortunately, President Kennedy caught wind that Levinson might harbor communist feelings. And only because of that, he pressed MLK hard to ice out his longtime friend.

Now how do you think Levinson responded to basically getting canceled? We bet most would defend themselves till they're blue in the face! Or guilt trip MLK into loyalty over directives! But not this man! In an act of pure selflessness - knowing the greater good for justice was more crucial than any individual friendship or reputation - Levinson quietly bowed out. Refusing to bring any drama or controversy that could hurt the cause he devoted his life to! That's a hero right there! Like, doesn't it take enormous courage to be this selfless. This could have been his villain origin story! Instead, he straight up quit from the civil rights movement he helped build. And Levinson wasn't just down for the cause; he was ride or die for King himself! And still no selfishness or feelings of betrayal in sight.

This is just one story of Robin and Batman. There's also Michael Jordan and Bill Cartwright - the co-captain who helped Jordan's Chicago Bulls secure their iconic three-peat.

Now, make no mistake! Neither of them were seeking medals or glory. And when courage isn't about the credit, that's hero material right there. In its purest form: selfless bravery for the greater good. Willingly abandoning your life's purpose for the welfare of the cause. Have the courage to be heroic!

Summary

"Courage is Calling" offers a thoughtful exploration of what true courage looks like in ordinary life. True courage often starts small—a difficult email, a call, or some minor act of sacrifice. It means facing fears, not lacking them entirely. Quiet courage still lies within each of us, waiting to step up when needed to light the way ahead. With listening ears and willful hearts, we can answer the call.

Key concepts in Courage is Calling

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About the Author

Author, media strategist, and bookstore owner Ryan Holiday hails from the United States. He is also the host of the podcast called Daily Stoic. The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, and Stillness is the Key are some of his other books.