Before I start many of my classes, I ask the room if there’s anything they would like me to work into the practice. It can be an area of the body or a theme that is currently present in their lives. Recently a practitioner said, “Confidence.” It is not the first time I’ve heard this request, and so I said I would do my best. Throughout the class, I tried to weave in whatever wisdom I might have on the subject. What it came down to were three main things.

The first was to consider if the motivation for any act they thought required confidence was inspired. En spirare, is the Latin root of the word inspire, and means “in spirit.” If your motivation is inspired, then it will be much more powerful than if it were to be of the mind alone. If you’re unsure, take a quiet, reflective moment to ask yourself, “what is my heart-centered intention?” Once you know this, you can judge whether your current motivation supports your intention or not.

The second is to be careful not to confuse confidence with stupidity. It always gets a chuckle when I say it, but it’s true. If I were to hand you the keys to a 747 and tell you to fly it across the country (assuming you are not a pilot), it would not be an act of courage to do so. It would be an act of stupidity. Stupidity is rooted in ignorance. Because you have no prior knowledge of aerodynamics, engineering and have never been taught how to fly a plane, there would be quite a bit of fear associated. Fear is not the only indicator of if an act is one of courage. The way to clear up our fear would then be to gain knowledge. We could go to school to study flying and find a good teacher to show us the proper technique. With regular practice, we would gain new understanding, and the fear would subside. At that point, you yourself would not think of flying as an act of courage because you had the necessary tools to do it.

This brings us to the third and most important point. It is not courage that we need more of; it is wisdom. Wisdom comes through the application of knowledge. Wisdom is the ability to apply the mind and body in just the right way at just the right time. We have all engaged in courageous acts in our life. We all have fears, and we work to overcome them somewhat daily. But, through the application of self-reflection, working with teachers, gathering and applying knowledge we gain wisdom.

You do not need to take some dramatic action in your life to be courageous. Do the small things every day, and it will make a huge difference. I guarantee it.