Did you know that the root meaning for the word courage is “heart?" It makes sense that this would be the case since we are driven by the motivation of what is in our heart. Of course, this is not the literal heart, but it has to do with our figurative heart that involves our inner world of contemplation and feeling in connection with our core values. Some would define this emotion as someone that is fearless, however, I would argue the premise, for the word courage, there is an implication of fear, otherwise, it would nullify the need to be courageous. In this post I would like to discuss moral courage which carries the virtue of doing what is right based on core values and accepted norms. Especially, when Moral courage is necessary to give attention to ethical issues and taking a stance when it is not popular or easy. It is often the case, that courage is related to someone in the battlefield, in which case it is true. However, Moral courage is more profound emotionally, involves your heart at a deeper level, it is a commitment to be tenacious upon one’s honorable, or noble beliefs, despite probable consequences it might create.
As we observe the entire societal landscape, The lack of moral courage is obviously fractured and provides evidence that this virtuous quality needs to be developed. My contention is that we can only benefit if we make a conscious effort to cultivate this characteristic or respectable quality in our personal and professional lives. Moral courage can only be cultivated and solidified by constantly putting it into practice. So, the question is, how do we learn and quantify this desired moral attribute? Fortunately, we were all given this universal gift innately. For example, when you observe children on a playground, moral courage is manifested in many ways, such as when a youngster crowds in, there is always another youngster that will protest to unethical behavior. It is a matter of building quality by roe models, such as parents or mentors and from a spiritual standpoint, yes, the Golden Rule. I would venture to say that most of us have not entered a burning building which is called physical courage. Think of it, our moral courage is put to the test daily. Showing integrity at the risk of disapproval, the loss of wages and the loss of employment. It does take visceral fortitude to admit to a mistake and being responsible for making tough decisions. Doing all this while you see others getting away with unethical behavior and benefiting from the lack of moral courage. In fact, many of us that strive to do the best we can regarding being fair morally, sometimes there is retribution, denunciation, all to our detriment and we hardly expect a metal or any kind of recognition. Yet this kind of courage is the hallmark of true character that family and friends can be proud of, not to mention the trust we gain with our business associates. Since moral courage is a virtuous quality, we will explore how we can personally promote this attribute on our next post.
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