There are two brave acts required to get everything you want.
The first is to block off all emotion and move forward. I became quite the expert at this. After over 400 games smashing into other people's bodies playing a sport called rugby league.
And then again in the military.
Whether it was throwing a grenade for the first time, or abseiling off a two hundred metre high cliff.
It's that need to protect.
Every man knows it.
Without the bravery to do This, men can never self actualise.
Ooze confidence.
Because They'll be denying a part of themselves without expressing this bravery.
Now the second bravery.
If you don't do this, you'll probably feel half complete.
Many people do because they can't seem to access this kind of courage.
I know this was me for most of my life.
including when acting out the first bravery.
Because the second bravery reveals something you forgot long ago.
Something more important than anything else you've ever experienced.
You.
Before you were given your name.
Before your parents had any influence.
There's you.
The second brav3ery is counter intuitive.
Like the opposite of the first.
Instead of blocking out the feelings and valiantly doing something of great significance, you feel it all.
You surrender to the feelings present.
I remember this when I was telling my future wife dark secrets I thought I'd be rejected for.
I remember this when at my lowest point, crying in my brother's arms was welcomed so much that it Brought us together more than ever.
Each moment of surrender to this resistance.
This need to only show the first bravery.
Each moment was met with more freedom.
Not the freedom of where, or when I could be somewhere.
Or the freedom of what I could do.
But the personal freedom to be me.
This is the greatest freedom.
Because without it, all other freedom loses it's shine.
Robbie Williams comes to mind.
I just finished watching his documentary.
His worst moment was singing in front of 90,000 people.
You'd think that's something dreams are made of to be adored by that many people.
But he was having a panic attack for two hours on stage.
Nobody knew.
Nobody could tell.
Because he couldn't find the second bravery to act upon.
He was using the first, and for too long.
Mind and heart racing, he blocked it out, and kept on.
Shortly after he relapsed on drugs.
But then a woman came along that he felt like he'd known his whole life.
She became his wife, and throughout that process, he discovered the courage to act on the second bravery.
Love for another person is symbolic of the love we've allowed ourselves to have.
How much are you allowing yourself?
How could you act more on the second bravery?
What if it didn't take away from the first bravery?
What if it enhanced your ability to protect and perform?
These stories about acting on the second bravery have helped me move through the hardest resistance.
They've helped me find inner peace, and inner pieces of myself I'd rejected.
They've helped me feel whole again.
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