Kate Swoboda has long been fascinated by fear and how we approach it. She believes that courage (rather than ‘fearlessness’) is the answer – and it’s something that can be developed as a habit. In fact, she’s written a book about how to do just that.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of feeling fear. Like many of us, I’ll go to great lengths to avoid or run away from anything that’s too scary.

While this works fine with horror movies and roller coasters (I’ve spent a lifetime blissfully avoiding pretty much every one of those suckers) it’s not such a great strategy when it comes to living a life. Because if we want to experience joy, do something new, or just leave the house some days, we’re going to have to deal with fear.

And trying to be ‘fearless’ misses the point entirely – not to mention being an incredibly unhealthy thing to aim for. Fear is normal. Fear is necessary. Fear can mean survival. Trying to outrun fear or push it away just isn’t going to work (and I say this as someone who’s experienced anxiety attacks since she was a teen – I’ve tried to outrun the fear. It always gets you in the end.)

But Kate Swoboda takes a different approach to the ‘be fearless’ aspiration doled out by so many personal development memes.

Kate believes we need not be ‘fearless’ but courageous.

Kate Swoboda has made it her passion to help others develop THE COURAGE HABIT and in this episode, we discuss her unique approach to working with fear, courage and all the places that scare us. We talk about how she developed a process of identifying what you’re done with, clarifying what your most courageous self (truly) wants, and aligning your life through practicing courageous habits that will create your courageous life.

We also cover:

– Politics and courage in action – whether that is going after your big dream, or engaging in social activism

– The predominant four patterns of fear

– A process for working through fear and stepping into courage

About Kate Swoboda (aka Kate Courageous)

Kate Swoboda is the creator of YourCourageousLife.com, Director of the Courageous Living Coach Certification at TribeCLCC.com and author of The Courage Habit: How to Accept Your Fears, Release the Past, and Live Your Courageous Life. She helps individuals, teams, and companies see where old, fear-based habits have kept people stuck or started to limit what’s possible for an organization, and then start creating more courageous lives by getting into “the courage habit,” a four-part process for behavioral and organizational change.

Kate has appeared in MindBodyGreen, Entrepreneur, USA Today, Forbes, Lifetime Moms, The Intelligent Optimist, Business Insider, and more, and her website Your Courageous Life was named a top-50 blog for happiness by Greatist. She’s spoken at conferences and seminars on the topic of courage as it relates to personal development, releasing overwhelm, business and marketing, money mindset, wellness, increasing emotional resilience, and healthy goal-setting using habit-formation techniques.