The Courage To Live
The Courage to Live podcast is hosted by retired Police Captain Josh Bitsko and his wife Jenna, and it explores resilience, leadership, and the real stories behind critical incidents and everyday challenges. Each episode blends lessons from Josh’s career in law enforcement including his response to the 1 October mass shooting in Las Vegas with honest conversations about trauma, growth, and the courage it takes to face both professional and personal battles. The show covers everything from leadership and decision making under stress to mental health, family, and the daily choices that help us live with purpose.
The Courage To Live
Ep. 141: Courage Casts - Is It Okay to Be Afraid?
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Josh breaks down the role fear plays in policing and other high-risk professions. He explains why fear is a natural response in dangerous situations and why the goal isn’t to eliminate it, but to keep it from interfering with decision-making and performance. This episode focuses on recognizing fear, managing it, and continuing to act when it matters most.
Welcome to the Courage to Lib Podcast. My name is Josh Bitsko, and I'm a retired police captain with 24 years of experience out of Las Vegas. Currently, I travel the country and I teach people about courage, resilience, and leadership. Today's podcast, I'm going to touch on a or talk about a touchy subject that I think many in law enforcement can understand where I'm coming from with this. And it's I want to try to answer the question: is it okay to be afraid when you're uh work in the streets, when you're a cop? Can't speak as much to the military because I was never in the military. But um, as far as policing, I I've had some pretty harrowing experiences and think that I can talk about some of that emotion, at least for me specifically. But I always see it's that, you know, somebody'll ask a cop when they're doing a debrief or whatever, and this used to be me. It was, oh, were you scared? And they'll say, No, I just knew I had a job to do, or whatever you think, you know, your 90s action star cop would say um in that situation. But I think that's a question that comes up a lot. And the mere fact that, like, I've I've done debriefs in front of rooms of cops, and that is not an uncommon question that I get is were you scared? And the fact that somebody's even asking that question shows that you know, we we have a scary job, right? At times as cops, there are things you're gonna have to do that going to cause a fear response, which is a natural human emotion that we have, regardless of your belief system, whether you believe we are created or evolved, we have that emotion to aid in our survival, right? So is it okay to be scared when you're going on a scary call as uh any kind of first responder, but we'll talk about law enforcement here? The answer is yes. Now, is it okay to let that fear stop you from doing what you need to do in that moment? No. So, you know, finding ways to not allow fear to control you, do not allow fear to take the wheel and drive you off course when you do have a job to do. So finding what works for you, that what be it through therapy, training, um, you know, classes like that I offer, but whatever it is that you do, you have to figure that out if you're going to have a job that you could be killed while doing it. So answer that question. Is it okay to be afraid as a cop? Yes. Just don't let it stop you from doing what you need to do. Appreciate you listening. Uh, if you enjoyed the podcast, leave a review, subscribe, share it with a friend, and I appreciate you spending time with me today.