Saddle Up Cowboy

Contemplando la Vida, originally uploaded by Luis Montemayor.

"Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." ~ John Wayne

I've been scared to death a few times. I'm sure you have too. Did you saddle up anyway?

The funny thing about saddling up (taking a stand, saying the right thing, changing course, etc.) is as difficult as it may be at first, once the heat of the moment is over you feel much better. When you choose not to saddle up you often look back with regret. The common feeling is that you could have made a better decision.

There's a few tricks in making sure you will saddle up when the moment calls for it:

• Accept that fear may be part of the equation.
  
• Prepare long before high noon. It's true we aren't always permitted the time to prepare, but if you know there's going to be "a moment of truth", get prepared.
  
• Be confident in your decision.
• Prepare to ride off into the sunset alone. One of the reasons it can be difficult to saddle up is because the rest of the cowboy's and cowgirls may see things differently. It wouldn't be so hard to saddle up if everyone else was doing the same.
• Be inspired.
  
• Be ready to grow. Know that it is often through the most difficult moments in our lives that we can grow. Avoiding all difficult decisions stunts our growth.
  
• Accept that fear may be part of the equation. Yes, I said it twice. Since fear seems to be the over riding reason that prohibits us from making many decisions (even when we can better our lives), we need to learn to overcome it by accepting its presence.
  

Saddle up, cowboy.