Sun Tzu and Courage
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What is courage?
Is it of the mind or is it of the heart? A dictionary might say something like “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear”.
Bravery: to have the courage of one's convictions, to act in accordance with one's beliefs, especially in spite of criticism”. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends” observed J. K. Rowling. “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen” said Winston Churchill and Dale Carnegie advised “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy”. “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear” says Mark Twain. Thucydides remarked that the “secret to happiness is freedom... and the secret to freedom is courage”.
It would seem that courage is hard to define because of all its many forms. Yet we know when we see it. Aristotle believed “you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honour”. The greatest quality of the mind next to honour, here may be a key to understanding courage.
Fear is an emotion, a very powerful emotion, that can be controlled by the mind. So the question is how do we prepare the mind to overcome the emotion? Let's look at some of the passages of the Art of War to see if the Master has some advice.
11.28. On the day they are ordered out to battle, your soldiers may weep, those sitting up bedewing their garments, and those lying down letting the tears run down their cheeks. But let them once be brought to bay, and they will display the courage of a Chu or a Kuei. Nelson Mandela wrote “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear”. Again a reference to mind over an emotion.
This passage from the Art of War indicates that Sun Tzu believed that courage can be found in everyone. If weeping soldiers can be placed in a situation that can turn them into courageous fighters then if follows that courage can be sparked in all of us. So what can we do to make us braver or to create a situation where we can be brave? Maybe so, because the book gives us advice on how to do just this.
7.25 The host thus forming a single united body, is it impossible either for the brave to advance alone, or for the cowardly to retreat alone.
11.32. The principle on which to manage an army is to set up one standard of courage which all must reach.
So if we surround ourselves with courageous people maybe we can make ourselves more courageous than what we think we are. An army is taught, trained and disciplined so that each soldier, each individual will react to a threat in a particular way. This knowledge in and of itself can make one braver or at least appear so. If there anything more terrifying than being alone? Roosevelt's once declared that Americans had 'nothing to fear but fear itself'. Billy Graham, an American Christian evangelist, is quoted as saying “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened”. By getting close to a brave individual or someone who we believe is courageous, maybe we can be infected with their courage and bravery. No one would argue that individuals feel safer and therefore braver in a group of like minded individuals than standing alone. Maybe using the old saying “birds of a feather flock together” to our advantage. Giving credence to the saying there is safety in numbers, so maybe the safer we feel the braver we are. There is also the fact that our fear of being shamed by not be courageous in the presence of those we most respect and desire to be respected by can be a powerful motivator to be courageous. Fancy that. A fear to conquer fear.
11.40 To muster his host and bring it into danger:—this may be termed the business of the general. Steven Seagal's quote “I have no fear of death. More important, I don't fear life” can be inspirational. One can not live ones life without being faced with situations that inspire fear of some sort. It can be spiritual, financial, physical, mental or of many other types. Is it not interesting that motivators say we can be as fearful of success as we are of failure?
4.13 He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Without doubt we make less mistakes without fear that if we are completely saturated with fear, so are we better off without any fear? “In boxing, I had a lot of fear. Fear was good. But, for the first time, in the bout with Muhammad Ali, I didn't have any fear. I thought, 'This is easy. This is what I've been waiting for'. No fear at all. No nervousness. And I lost”. George Foreman George and alcohol should demonstrate to all that having no fear can be as regrettable as too much fear. Fear can be a good thing, it heightens our senses and judgement and can stop us from doing some really dumb things. However it should not prevent us from being ourselves and living our lives. “If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened”. George S. Patton words can do more than just give us comfort, it should give us an understanding. We are all afraid and we are all brave.
4.12 Hence his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage. The problem may not be that we are not brave, it is how we believe we compare to others. We may not be the kind of a person who will run into a burning building or pull an injured person from a wrecked car or to stand up to a bully in the school yard. Maybe our kind of bravery will not bring us the accolades of a nation or our friends. It won't because maybe they will never know what scares us. Not all of us can enter a fire-fight like John Wayne or Steven Seagal or either George mentioned above. Maybe our courage is more common or less spectacular that that shown of news or goes viral on the internet. Yet it is still courage and without it we will not make through the day. There are so many fears how can we rank any of them? How can we rank them if we can not confront them all? What is it that make one person terrified of spiders or sharks without ever confronting either?
10.30 Hence the experienced soldier, once in motion, is never bewildered; once he has broken camp, he is never at a loss. So how do you become brave or at least braver? Armies train their soldiers to control their fears by constantly putting them through scenarios similar to those that they will face and could be life ending. So experiencing these situations over and over, they believe will either decrease the fear or increase the courage. Maybe both simultaneously. It is almost impossible to create scenarios that we must face and turn our knees to jelly. However, there is a body of research that suggests if you role play in your mind the situation you fear and you behaving in exactly the manner you want can have a very positive outcome.
3.3 Thus the highest form of generalship is to baulk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.
The four steps we can take to deal with our fears is the same as how we deal with our enemies. Fear is of course an enemy. So we should resist the effect fear has over us. We determine what they are and then seek counsel on how to minimise this effect. Next we plan our lives as best we can to avoid or reduce the situations that cause the fear from coming about. Yes, easier said than done. Part of achieving this step lies in step three, to deal with the fear head on. There are two choices, one to face it in one lump or to slowly ease our way to a full confrontation. The worst thing is to believe there is nothing we can do and accept that we will have to deal with the effects of a particular fear for the rest of our lives.
So we know of men and women who have shown great courage. We have heard from some of these courageous people. Maybe at the end of the day we only need to remember this:
The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next. Mignon McLaughlin
Is it of the mind or is it of the heart? A dictionary might say something like “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear”.
Bravery: to have the courage of one's convictions, to act in accordance with one's beliefs, especially in spite of criticism”. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends” observed J. K. Rowling. “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen” said Winston Churchill and Dale Carnegie advised “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy”. “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear” says Mark Twain. Thucydides remarked that the “secret to happiness is freedom... and the secret to freedom is courage”.
It would seem that courage is hard to define because of all its many forms. Yet we know when we see it. Aristotle believed “you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honour”. The greatest quality of the mind next to honour, here may be a key to understanding courage.
Fear is an emotion, a very powerful emotion, that can be controlled by the mind. So the question is how do we prepare the mind to overcome the emotion? Let's look at some of the passages of the Art of War to see if the Master has some advice.
11.28. On the day they are ordered out to battle, your soldiers may weep, those sitting up bedewing their garments, and those lying down letting the tears run down their cheeks. But let them once be brought to bay, and they will display the courage of a Chu or a Kuei. Nelson Mandela wrote “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear”. Again a reference to mind over an emotion.
This passage from the Art of War indicates that Sun Tzu believed that courage can be found in everyone. If weeping soldiers can be placed in a situation that can turn them into courageous fighters then if follows that courage can be sparked in all of us. So what can we do to make us braver or to create a situation where we can be brave? Maybe so, because the book gives us advice on how to do just this.
7.25 The host thus forming a single united body, is it impossible either for the brave to advance alone, or for the cowardly to retreat alone.
11.32. The principle on which to manage an army is to set up one standard of courage which all must reach.
So if we surround ourselves with courageous people maybe we can make ourselves more courageous than what we think we are. An army is taught, trained and disciplined so that each soldier, each individual will react to a threat in a particular way. This knowledge in and of itself can make one braver or at least appear so. If there anything more terrifying than being alone? Roosevelt's once declared that Americans had 'nothing to fear but fear itself'. Billy Graham, an American Christian evangelist, is quoted as saying “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened”. By getting close to a brave individual or someone who we believe is courageous, maybe we can be infected with their courage and bravery. No one would argue that individuals feel safer and therefore braver in a group of like minded individuals than standing alone. Maybe using the old saying “birds of a feather flock together” to our advantage. Giving credence to the saying there is safety in numbers, so maybe the safer we feel the braver we are. There is also the fact that our fear of being shamed by not be courageous in the presence of those we most respect and desire to be respected by can be a powerful motivator to be courageous. Fancy that. A fear to conquer fear.
11.40 To muster his host and bring it into danger:—this may be termed the business of the general. Steven Seagal's quote “I have no fear of death. More important, I don't fear life” can be inspirational. One can not live ones life without being faced with situations that inspire fear of some sort. It can be spiritual, financial, physical, mental or of many other types. Is it not interesting that motivators say we can be as fearful of success as we are of failure?
4.13 He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Without doubt we make less mistakes without fear that if we are completely saturated with fear, so are we better off without any fear? “In boxing, I had a lot of fear. Fear was good. But, for the first time, in the bout with Muhammad Ali, I didn't have any fear. I thought, 'This is easy. This is what I've been waiting for'. No fear at all. No nervousness. And I lost”. George Foreman George and alcohol should demonstrate to all that having no fear can be as regrettable as too much fear. Fear can be a good thing, it heightens our senses and judgement and can stop us from doing some really dumb things. However it should not prevent us from being ourselves and living our lives. “If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened”. George S. Patton words can do more than just give us comfort, it should give us an understanding. We are all afraid and we are all brave.
4.12 Hence his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage. The problem may not be that we are not brave, it is how we believe we compare to others. We may not be the kind of a person who will run into a burning building or pull an injured person from a wrecked car or to stand up to a bully in the school yard. Maybe our kind of bravery will not bring us the accolades of a nation or our friends. It won't because maybe they will never know what scares us. Not all of us can enter a fire-fight like John Wayne or Steven Seagal or either George mentioned above. Maybe our courage is more common or less spectacular that that shown of news or goes viral on the internet. Yet it is still courage and without it we will not make through the day. There are so many fears how can we rank any of them? How can we rank them if we can not confront them all? What is it that make one person terrified of spiders or sharks without ever confronting either?
10.30 Hence the experienced soldier, once in motion, is never bewildered; once he has broken camp, he is never at a loss. So how do you become brave or at least braver? Armies train their soldiers to control their fears by constantly putting them through scenarios similar to those that they will face and could be life ending. So experiencing these situations over and over, they believe will either decrease the fear or increase the courage. Maybe both simultaneously. It is almost impossible to create scenarios that we must face and turn our knees to jelly. However, there is a body of research that suggests if you role play in your mind the situation you fear and you behaving in exactly the manner you want can have a very positive outcome.
3.3 Thus the highest form of generalship is to baulk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.
The four steps we can take to deal with our fears is the same as how we deal with our enemies. Fear is of course an enemy. So we should resist the effect fear has over us. We determine what they are and then seek counsel on how to minimise this effect. Next we plan our lives as best we can to avoid or reduce the situations that cause the fear from coming about. Yes, easier said than done. Part of achieving this step lies in step three, to deal with the fear head on. There are two choices, one to face it in one lump or to slowly ease our way to a full confrontation. The worst thing is to believe there is nothing we can do and accept that we will have to deal with the effects of a particular fear for the rest of our lives.
So we know of men and women who have shown great courage. We have heard from some of these courageous people. Maybe at the end of the day we only need to remember this:
The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next. Mignon McLaughlin