Let’s Talk About | Courage

Last updated on 1 August 2020

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase with one of these links, I recieve a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read the full Affiliate Policy.

“Sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage.”

I’ve only seen We Bought a Zoo once in my life. It was a beautiful movie, and I recommend it if you haven’t seen it. I say that with the confidence one might expect from someone who knows a movie really well, like I remember a lot about it. But the truth is I don’t. Other than the general plot, I don’t remember much. I do, however, remember one line/phrase, clear as day, one that often springs to mind.

“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.” – Benjamin Mee, We Bought a Zoo

20 seconds isn’t a long amount of time in the grand scheme of things. It’s only a third of a minute, and a minute is only 1/60th of an hour. I can’t even begin to figure out how to calculate how much 20 seconds is in a year, in a decade, a lifetime. It’s minuscule. And yet 20 seconds seems like an age when you’re counting, or waiting, or doing something you don’t enjoy. Or when you’re doing something courageous.

On occasion I find myself wanting to do something, to say something, to introduce myself, to stand up, speak out, and yet I overthink it. It runs through my mind a thousand different ways, and I end up walking away, leaving the room, keeping quiet. But sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I get to the stage where I’ve almost left the building, I’m at the door having not done or said that thing I wanted to do or say, and something in me just clicks. And I turn around and I march back (for if I didn’t march then I wouldn’t get there quick enough and I might have time to change my mind), and I do the thing or I say the words. And the whole time my heart is racing and I’m thinking ‘not worth it, turn around, walk away’. Like the human that I am, that does happen, and I regret it for days, weeks later. But in that one-in-a-million situation where I march back, I take a breath, I stick my hand out and I say ‘Hi, I’m Anjali’ or [insert scary action here], I look back and I am one proud lady.

Proud that I followed through, proud that I did the thing, that I said the words, that I introduced myself, that I stood up, spoke out, that I took that 20 seconds of insane courage, of embarrassing bravery. While ‘something great’ doesn’t come from every second of bravery – I might not change the world, or kick start the next big thing – something great always comes from it for me.

“Life is made of so many moments that mean nothing. Then one day, a single moment comes along to define every second that comes after. Such moments are tests of courage, of strength.” – Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

I can’t think of a defining moment that has changed ‘every second that comes after’ it, but what I do know is that every time that 20 seconds of insane courage kicks in, whether I’m gearing up to it or I take myself completely by surprise, that I learn and I grow and I find confidence both in myself and in my abilities. Perhaps one day there will be ‘a single moment’ that comes along that changes everything, like in this quote from Tahir … but until then, I hope that I can grab hold of those 20 seconds when they pass by, and let them pull me reluctantly into situations that I would otherwise stay clear from.

So today, this week, this year, may you grasp hold of those 20 seconds of insane courage, of embarrassing bravery, and see where it takes you. Perhaps something great will come of it.