What If You're Brave Enough to Try?

Bryan Rudolph

Sep 7

2 min read

“You'll never do a whole lot unless you're brave enough to try.” — Dolly Parton

Courage has terrible marketing.

We tend to picture brave people standing dramatically on mountaintops while inspirational music plays in the background.

Real courage is usually much less cinematic.

Sometimes courage is sitting at your kitchen table in pajamas thinking:

“Well… I guess I'll send it.”

Click.

Email sent.

No orchestra.

No mountain.

Possibly coffee. #affiliate

Yet something changed.

You tried.

And trying is where possibility begins.

1. Stop Waiting to Feel Completely Ready

There's a sneaky belief many of us carry:

I'll do it when I feel confident.

Unfortunately, confidence has apparently not received the memo.

It usually arrives after we've done something several times—not before.

We become confident speakers by speaking.

Confident business owners by making business decisions.

Confident writers by writing.

Confidence is often the result of action, not the prerequisite for it.

So instead of asking, “Do I feel confident enough?”

Try asking:

“Am I willing to try?”

That's a much easier question to answer.

2. Make the Risk Smaller

Sometimes we're not afraid of the actual thing.

We're afraid of the enormous version of it we've created in our imagination.

Starting a business becomes:

“What if I lose everything and have to live under a bridge?”

Posting a video becomes:

“What if the entire Internet hates me?”

Calling a potential client becomes:

“What if they reject me and I must immediately move to another country?”

Our brains can be wonderfully theatrical.

Instead, shrink the experiment.

Don't launch an empire.

Test an idea.

Don't commit forever.

Try it for 30 days.

Don't become fearless.

Take one slightly uncomfortable step.

Small experiments #affiliate create information.

And information reduces fear.

3. Redefine What Counts as Success

Here's the Ahhh moment.

Trying can be successful even when the outcome isn't.

You made the call.

Success.

You submitted the proposal.

Success.

You tried a new approach and discovered it didn't work.

Believe it or not—still useful.

Because now you know something you didn't know before.

The only experiment that teaches you absolutely nothing is the one you never conduct.

For highly sensitive people, this matters.

We can sometimes spend so much time anticipating every possible outcome that we've mentally lived through 47 versions of the future before Tuesday.

But life doesn't happen in our predictions.

It happens in our participation.

You don't need certainty.

You don't need everyone to approve.

And you certainly don't need fear to disappear.

You simply need enough courage for the next step.

Because somewhere between “I wonder if I could…” and “Look what I did” lives one beautifully ordinary decision:

I tried.

🌿 Disclaimer and A Resource for Your Journey

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