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The Mike Muldoon Podcast: Bite-Sized Coaching Sessions Empowering Transformation in Small Doses
Unlike those who’ve already reached their goals and now tell you how to get there, The Mike Muldoon Podcast isn’t about preaching from the finish line. We’re (yes, me too) on this journey together. I’m walking it with you—growing, learning, and striving side by side. This is about elevating our lives, building a stronger, more empowered mindset, and unlocking our full potential with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
The Mike Muldoon Podcast: Bite-Sized Coaching Sessions Empowering Transformation in Small Doses
You Don't Need to Feel Brave to Be Brave
What does it really mean to be courageous? Contrary to popular belief, courage isn't about being fearless—it's about feeling the fear and moving forward anyway. Drawing from personal experience with panic disorder and anxiety, I explore how true courage emerges not when we feel brave, but when we choose action despite our trembling.
Remember those childhood moments of tying towels around our necks as makeshift superhero capes? Real courage rarely feels like that confident, caped hero on a mountain. Through my own struggles with paralyzing fear—like the panic I'd experience crossing the Bay Bridge in San Francisco—I've discovered that courage is found in those small, shaky steps forward when everything in you wants to retreat.
The science backs this up. Researchers like Dr. Barbara Fredrickson have found that acting in line with your values despite discomfort builds resilience over time. Studies in cognitive therapy demonstrate how exposure to feared situations rewires our emotional responses, making courage a muscle we strengthen through practice. Whether you're facing a job change, relationship challenge, or simply trying to get through a difficult day, remember that each small act of courage is a vote for the life you want to live. You don't need to feel brave to be brave—you just need to take that next small step. What tiny courageous action might you take today that could transform your tomorrow?
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Hey all and welcome to this week's episode of the Michael Newton Podcast. Hope you're doing well. Another week is upon us. Another week is moving quickly. I say it every week, but it is Every time I turn around. It's like we're in the middle of another week and it's almost coming to an end. But hey, I'm early. This week. I'm early with this podcast. Normally I'm just like pushing it right to the end, but I'm actually about two days early following.
Speaker 1:My wife and I decided to open up a bagel coffee shop Both of us. Again, it's not our world. My world is basically entertainment, writing and some other stuff here and there, and my wife is a lawyer. So it's a whole new thing for us. It's a whole new adventure. But if you've been listening to my podcast, you know I'm all about hey, take risks. That's what life's about.
Speaker 1:So today I want to jump into it, because what I want to talk about today is something that's kind of really near and dear to me. And I want to talk about courage, right, because a lot of times we think about courage. People are sort of like, oh, they're just so courageous, they don't fear anything. But the truth is, courage is not the absence of fear, but it's rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear, which is really interesting. That was actually written by Ambrose Redmond, but it's the truth In order to be very courageous, you have to be doing something that presents sort of fear in front of you. Because the thing is, we often think of courage as something you're born with a bold, fearless energy that kind of rushes in, like with superhero. We get a superhero on a cape in the wind, just kind of sitting there where Superman on top of a mountain, but the truth is, courage rarely feels like confidence, but it shows up anyway. And the good news, though, is courage isn't a feeling, it is a choice, and that's what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 1:This one is really, um, really, uh, really personal to me, because this is something if you if you listened to my podcast in the past or read my book you know I talk about, like I grew up a lot with panic disorder, panic attacks, fears, and I'm talking about not as a child, I'm talking about going into my, my adult years. Thought I got out of them sometime in 30. I got somewhere in my thirties, got hit again, crippling, and I used to have a you know really it things in my life that are not very easy to do. But the thing is, because I recognize, and I recognize the patterns, which is good right, I'm very self-aware about why things are happening and it kind of helped me move forward. It's really just an understanding of the physiology, of why, what's going on in my body and then how I can kind of calm it down. But it doesn't make everything so easy for me.
Speaker 1:A lot of times and I remember my brother was living up in San Francisco and I was down in los angeles and I would I hated bridges and anybody's gone to san francisco you know you got to cross that uh, that, uh, that bay bridge. And it's not just a bridge like here where I am in england, where you're just kind of crossing over a canal. We're talking about several stretch miles. And I remember I used to leave early, early in the morning, just so that I would get there at a certain time of day where I knew traffic wouldn't be on the bridge. Because if I did, it would always give me anxiety as I was coming up with panic to the point that sometimes I probably didn't want to go over that bridge. I knew I had to, but I didn't want to go over the bridge and it was crazy and it really used to affect me. And, of course, numerous times I would get on that bridge and there'd be traffic and I would just be sitting there just shaking, trembling, like I didn't know. But again, you know, having gone through it so many times and you know I guess I'll use that word, building resilience towards it, I would be able to calm myself down. But it was never easy.
Speaker 1:And I remember when I read that quote you know talking about, you know courage isn't, you know, the absence of fear. But remember when I read that quote you know talking about, you know courage isn't, you know, the absence of fear, but the you know having fear and the willingness to move through it. And that kind of always got me through. And I feel like a lot of people are going through this stuff right now and and I feel like they're going about it, about it alone. But you're not.
Speaker 1:But you're not right, you know, because according to the psychologist Rollo May and I don't know if you actually wrote a book called the Courage to Create, and he basically says courage is the capacity to move ahead in spite of fear. It's not, again, the absence of fear, it's the action of it in its presence. So in order to be courageous, you actually have to be dealing with some sort of fear that pushes you through it. So, to give you an example, if I walked out of my house right now by the way, it's beautiful out right now in this evening If I walked out, walked down the street, came back, that does not make me courageous, it's just something I normally do. But if you're somebody who's been agoraphobic or somebody who's scared to leave the house or do anything, and they get up and then that terrifying fear still make their way down the street maybe it's only 10, 15 yards down the street come back.
Speaker 1:That is courage, that is being courageous Because, again, it's in the face of fear that you're still willing to move forward. And this idea is really backed by research and behavioral science. Dr Barbara Fredrickson she's this leading positive psychology researcher that I came across years ago and she basically found that people who intentionally act in line with their values, despite discomfort or fear, they will build resilience over time. So I guess that's kind of where I've gotten to. There's things that I do now that I wouldn't do years ago, but because I've had to face so many things and kind of be courageous. It's helped me move forward. So, in short, when you choose courage, your brain begins to learn that fear doesn't have to be the boss of you.
Speaker 1:There was another study published in cognitive therapy and research. I don't know if you're aware of cognitive therapy, but it's a really way sort of sort of treat, a lot of um, psychological, uh how would you say? Uh, uh, emotional challenges, you know, anxiety, panic attacks, so on and so forth. But um, basically just found that uh, exposure to fear, right, situations that maybe make you scared, even if you know you don't feel like you're ready, kind of reduced anxiety significantly over time. They always talk about like the snake, right, the person's terrified of a snake. You show them a million times well, not a million times, a few times, keep going. Eventually it reduces the anxiety significantly over time because the action itself rewires the emotional response.
Speaker 1:So I guess, long-winded here, if you're really struggling and if you're listening to this, maybe with a job change or breakup or starting something new or just getting through the day, just hear this right, you do not need to feel brave to be brave. You do not need to wait for fear to pass, to take the next step. You can choose courage, even whispers, even in small, tiny, little incremental pieces, because each act of courage is kind of a vote for the kind of life that you want to live, because it is that fear that is holding you back and the choice to move forward is what you have an opportunity to do is to change things. So, again, it doesn't have to be something gigantic, it doesn't have to be something huge to be courageous. It could be something small.
Speaker 1:You could pick one small action that you've been avoiding because of fear, and it might be something simple as sending an email to your boss or to somebody you got to talk to, or making that phone call. You've been kind of putting off saying what you really feel. That's hard, right. It's really hard sometimes to say to people what you really feel and ultimately asking for help, but I feel like nowadays it's a little bit more acceptable. I feel like me and my parents' generation that was a little like you know, everybody just kind of kept it closed in. But ask for help if you have to do it, and what you're going to notice is you can be scared and courageous at the same time. And again, the only way to really be courageous is to be in the face of some sort of fear.
Speaker 1:Okay, as Eleanor Roosevelt once said, you gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. All right. So if you're having fear, it looks at an opportunity. Here's that Superman moment. Here's that when I was a kid, we used to tie towels around our necks, um, to like like capes, uh, to to feel courageous, to feel your superhero. You know, if you've got fear, understand. Here's your opportunity to just show that you are courageous, and even it's a one little step, one little thing, because eventually that little step turns into a quick walk, to a jog, to a sprint, to an all out. You know, just blowing right through it and you will discover that you are no longer. Interestingly enough, you're no longer courageous for having done it, because you'll be doing it so often now that you don't have to face the fear anymore that it's technically just becomes like me walking out the door, going down the street, coming back and being okay for it. All right, all right. That's all I have for you today.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening. Really appreciate it, as always. Make sure you're hitting that Spotify, that Apple share it with your friends, family, relatives, I don't know, maybe a stranger, I don't know. You have a really good commute, maybe somewhere you're on a train, you're on a plane. Share it with them. As always, I try to keep this short, to the point, quick, so that you know if you just drive down the street and get this whole episode in. Would love the reviews on Apple Spotify, but I bet when you we're a hundred and something episodes in, I have to count. So I'm still here, I'm still with you and I'm going to continue sharing my journey on the bagel shop and the coffee shop and everything else we're doing. It's scary, it's terrifying, but I keep moving forward and every day I find the courage. All right, talk to you soon, as always. Have a great weekend and I've got another below for you. We'll see you next time.
