Bravery: Not Being Afraid of Yourself

 

how see yourselfIn Chris Brogan‘s, It’s Not About the Tights: An Owners Manual on Bravery, he states his definition of bravery, which is “not being afraid of yourself.” In early 2014, I left my husband in Thailand and returned to America alone. Many people told me I was brave. I really was not sure courage had anything to do with it.

Brogan says: “You’ve got to use whatever past you came from as part of the origin story that shapes the hero you will become. Welcome to day one. You are the superhero you’ve been waiting for.

As 2015 begins, I am opening the seventh We Said Go Travel Writing Contest. The Winter contest has always had a theme of inspiration. When I came up with the idea in December 2012 at the Sand Art Festival in Konark, India, I had no idea if anyone would participate. I hoped to have at least ten people enter. There were 60.

By the fourth contest one year later, there were 500. At this point over 1600 writers from over 75 countries have shared stories of inspiration, independence and gratitude. Sometimes you have to move forward even if you are not sure what will happen next.

Brogan believes Bravery is about “discovery…Bravery is about moving forward, because we can never go back.” You get to choose where you live, work and travel. “What makes your choice brave is whether it’s the choice you know to be the right one.”

Many people make New Year’s Resolutions that they do not keep, what do you want to change? It doesn’t matter what day it is but like Brogan says: “You can just start. You can say, “Today is day one.”

I hope you will find the resolve to make a decision that helps you discover more about yourself. Perhaps you will share your journey with us in the seventh WSGT Writing Contest or somewhere else or with a friend.

Lisa Niver at Sofitel Dec 2014
Lisa Niver at Sofitel Los Angeles for the Premier Travel Magazine Award Ceremony Dec. 4, 2014

Many people are not sure what to do or where to go and then they worry. But as Brogan says, “wasting time on worry and fear is a waste of your life. You can do so much more after you deal with whatever it is you’re putting off in all and any parts of your life.” I did spend a good deal of 2014 worrying about my decisions. For 2015, I am ready to move forward. I like what Brogan says:

Bravery is about accepting where you are, and then deciding if that’s where you want to be.

Take Action:  “Write down in your Book of Bravery the following:

*I accept that I am here: ______________

* I intend to be here: _________________

* Today (not tomorrow), I’ll take  this action to _________________”

Many people give up on their resolutions or promises to themselves as they become mired in should and regrets. I like what Brogan says about regret: “Regret wastes time. ‘I should never have started smoking’ is about as useful as saying, ‘I should have been born with wings.’ You can do nothing about either…Regret is a losing battle. You can never go backwards, and as regret never happens in the present or the future, you’re already doomed…Accept where you are. Realize where you intend to be. Build a bridge.”

If you get inspired to build a bridge to yourself and your future in 2015, please share it so you can inspire others. Remember:

You are the author of your story. You are the hero you’ve been waiting for. Accept that you’re the one who will solve your challenges, and that you are the right person for the task.

I want to thank everyone who has been part of my journey but especially all those I leaned on so hard in 2014. I could not have made it without you. There were many times where I just cried and felt like a failure but today I am going to remember this from Seth Godin‘s blog on January 1, 2015:

“Used to be,” is not necessarily a mark of failure or even obsolescence. It’s more often a sign of bravery and progress.

If you were brave enough to leap, who would you choose to ‘used to be’?

Lisa Ellen Niver

Lisa Ellen Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries and six continents. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she worked on cruise ships for seven years and backpacked for three years in Asia. She is the founder of the website WeSaidGoTravel which is read in 235 countries and was named #3 on Rise Global’s top 1,000 Travel Blogs. Niver is a speaker at the Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Dallas Travel and Adventure Shows for 2023. Her podcast, “Make Your Own Map,” has been watched in more than 11 countries on 4 continents. Niver is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, Inc. Look for her memoir in Fall 2023 from Post Hill Press/Simon and Schuster. You can find Lisa Niver talking travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, Satellite Media Tours, The Jet Set TV and Orbitz travel webisodes as well as her YouTube channel, where her WeSaidGoTravel videos have nearly 2 million views. With more than 150,000 followers across social media, she has hosted Facebook Live for USA Today 10best, is verified on Twitter and listed on IMDb, and is the Social Media Manager for the Los Angeles Press Club. As a journalist, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors and been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. She has been a judge for the Gracie Awards for the Alliance of Women in Media, and has run 15 travel competitions on her website, publishing over 2,500 writers and photographers from 75 countries. For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty times.   Niver has published more than 2000 articles, in more than three dozen magazines and journals including National Geographic, Wired, Teen Vogue, HuffPost Personal, POPSUGAR, Ms. Magazine, Luxury Magazine, Smithsonian, Sierra Club, Saturday Evening Post, AARP, AAA Explorer Magazine, American Airways, Delta Sky, enRoute (Air Canada), Hemispheres, Jewish Journal, Myanmar Times, BuzzFeed, Robb Report, Scuba Diver Life, Ski Utah, Trivago, Undomesticated, USA Today, TODAY, Wharton Magazine, and Yahoo. https://bit.ly/m/lisaniver Awards National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards 2021 Winner: Book Critic: Ms. Magazine “Untamed: Brave Means Living From the Inside Out” 2019 Winner: Soft News Feature for Film/TV: KTLA TV “Oscars Countdown to Gold with Lisa Niver” 2019 Finalist for: Soft News, Business/Music/Tech/Art Southern California Journalism Awards 2022 Finalist: Book Criticism 2021 Winner: Technology Reporting 2021 Finalist: Book Criticism 2020 Winner: Print Magazine Feature: Hemispheres Magazine, “Painter by the Numbers, Rembrandt” 2020 Finalist: Online Journalist of the Year, Activism Journalism, Educational Reporting, Broadcast Lifestyle Feature 2019 Finalist: Broadcast Television Lifestyle Segment for “Ogden Ski Getaway” 2018 Finalist: Science/Technology Reporting, Travel Reporting, Personality Profile 2017 Winner: Print Column “A Journey to Freedom over Three Passovers” Social Media Presence YouTube Channel: We Said Go Travel (1.7 million views) Short form video:TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts Twitter: lisaniver (90,000 followers) Instagram: lisaniver (24,000 followers) Pinterest: We Said Go Travel (20,000 followers and over 70,000 monthly views) Facebook: lisa.niver (5,000 followers); We Said Go Travel (3,000 followers) LinkedIn: lisaellenniver (9000 contacts)

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