Why Is Everyone Such A Coward These Days?

Are you pursuing your truth, or conforming to a pre-packaged ideal?

Whose success metrics are you allowing to be imposed on you? 

Are you aware of the motivational framework you're operating from?

Too often, we operate from paradigms installed generations ago — paradigms that teach us to prioritize security over opportunity, fostering conformity and passivity.

This results in “masses of men to lead lives of quiet desperation.” - Henry David Thoreau

When operating from these antiquated paradigms, conformity is always at the heart of the operating system with the goal of making it appear to be the overwhelmingly logical choice. 

It's positioned as the safest path, and for some, it may feel like the only path. This is a problem.

Conforming rarely leads to great long term outcomes.

I’m not advocating rebellion, but challenging you to live in a way that is consistent with what you believe. 

This requires that we choose courage over cowardice.

In this issue, I’m going to warn you of the cost of cowardice and challenge you to start taking ownership of your decision making processes.

The Cost of Cowardice

It’s tempting to follow the crowd. 

Conformity offers a comforting illusion of security. But this “safety” comes at the cost of our creativity, our unique potential, and possibly our very souls. 

We are not called to shrink ourselves to fit into someone else's mold. We are called to expand, to grow, to become the fullest expression of who we were created to be.

It takes courage to step off the well-trodden path, to question the status quo, to forge our own way. 

It takes courage to say “no” to the pressures of conformity and “yes” to the whispers of our own greatness.

Pressures to conform exist on all sides of “success”. Whether you’re a Goldman Sachs Trader, an aspiring artist, or leading a Division I basketball program - the pull to conform is a resistive force, hindering genuine progress or worse creating the illusion of it. 

Cowards crave the comforts of the familiar, hoarding it as currency. 

But the truth is effortless gratification destroys itself! 

If your only aim in life is comfort, you’ll find anything but that.

The process of transformation requires sacrifice! 

To become more than you are you have to move beyond your comfort zone. Even when it’s “working for you.”!

This isn’t just about the tension between meaning and making a living; it’s about how we do everything. 

We see conformity in the artist creating like everyone else, the leader leading like everyone else, the athlete “winning” like everyone else, the parent parenting like everyone else. How Sad!

Instead of risking the possibility of “failure”, cowards settle for the absolute certainty of it by clinging to the false comforts of conformity.

The cost of cowardice is everything — guaranteed failure!

True transformation is an inside job. 

It’s about cultivating inner strength, resilience, and a deep connection to our values. 

It’s about choosing courage over cowardice in every moment.

Are you making decisions based on fear or faith? Comfort over growth? Authenticity or the desire to please others?

"I must change my life so that I can live it, not wait for it." - Susan Sontag

Go live your truth! Decide your own direction and trek that path in a less prescribed manner.

It’s the best long term strategy for a genuinely good life.

Stay The Course,