Fortune Favours the Brave - Emotional Integrity and Courage in the Face of Internal Resistance

Fortune Favours the Brave - Emotional Integrity and Courage in the Face of Internal Resistance

The phrase "Fortune favours the brave" is often associated with outward acts of heroism, risk, and bold decision-making. But there is another kind of bravery - one that happens quietly, internally, often unnoticed by the world. It is the courage to confront ourselves, to act in alignment with what we know is true, even when our emotions suggest otherwise.

Sometimes bravery looks like the quiet decision to stop letting your emotions take the wheel. To stop waiting until you feel ready, calm, confident - or until the fear goes away.

In an emotionally intelligent culture, we’ve come to revere feelings as signals to be honoured. And they are. But research shows that while emotions provide useful information, they are not always accurate reflections of reality or reliable predictors of what’s best for us.

A study published in Emotion Review (Gross, 2014) highlights that emotions are constructed based on both current sensory input and past experiences - meaning they’re often more about where we’ve been than where we’re meant to go.

This matters because we often confuse safety with alignment. We believe that if something makes us feel uncertain, it must not be right. But discomfort is not always a danger sign. It is often a signal of the desire for growth.

Why Feelings Can Mislead

Feelings are wise companions. They carry information. But they aren’t always good navigators.

Frustration might mean something needs to change - or it might simply reflect unprocessed past resentment. Fear might mean you’re at risk - or that you’re stretching into a new version of yourself.

According to Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, a leading researcher in affective science, emotions are predictions, not facts. They are the brain’s way of trying to make sense of internal and external cues by referencing previous experiences (Barrett, 2017). This means what you’re feeling is often not about the present at all.

Anyone who knows my story about my encounter with a Grizzy bear in the Canadian Rockies will know why I always say feelings are not facts! I felt sheer terror in that moment - over what turned out to be a rock! The feeling of terror was real, but the story causing it - erm… not so much!

When we base decisions on our unquestioned feelings - pulling back from opportunities, delaying conversations, avoiding change - we inadvertently stay loyal to outdated identities.

A Personal Turning Point

Years ago, I found myself frustrated in a dynamic that wasn’t working. I told myself I was being patient. Compassionate. But what that frustration was asking of me was something else entirely.

It was asking me to step up. To draw a line in the sand. To say: this doesn’t work for me anymore.

The cost of avoiding that step was high. And the courage it took to take it was greater than I thought I had at the time.

This is the kind of courage we don’t talk about enough - the kind that shows up not in grand declarations, but in quiet moments of choice:

• To choose what’s true over what’s familiar

• To stop performing calmness and start honouring clarity

• To stop tolerating what drains you, even if your voice shakes when you say no

Courage as a Practice, Not a Personality Trait

Psychologist Rollo May once said, “The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.” True bravery isn’t about fearlessness. It’s about the willingness to act from a clearer state of mind, even when fear is wanting to lead.

According to Brené Brown, courage is not just one-off acts of boldness, but a pattern of showing up - consistently and wholeheartedly - in alignment with your values (Brown, 2012). It’s the practice of living as if the future you want is already calling to you. And that kind of bravery often looks like ordinary people making extraordinary choices in the face of inner conflict.

The Inner Saboteur:

So many people quietly retreat from their own growth without realising it. They say things like:

• "It feels heavy."

• "I don’t feel motivated."

• "I’m just not sure."

They make those feelings mean something - they trust those feelings implicitly. And while these signals might need to be listened to in a new way, they do not need to be automatically obeyed and believed.

This is where true emotional maturity comes in: learning to distinguish between the feeling that’s calling you forward, and the one that’s trying to keep you safe by keeping you the same. Between the message you think the feeling is telling you and the message it might actually have to offer instead.

This Is the Quiet Bravery That Changes Lives

Progress - real, heart-led progress - asks something of us. Not just dreams. Not just intentions.

It asks for movement. For decisions. For choosing what you know, not just what you feel.

Sometimes that means letting go of roles you’ve outgrown, stories you’ve outworn, and structures that once served you but now limit you. You’ll hear the emotions - fear, heaviness, self-doubt - and still, you’ll act.

Not recklessly. Not forcefully. But with a kind of steady devotion to who you are becoming.

This isn’t about pushing past your feelings. It’s about not mistaking them for truth.

It’s for the leaders, coaches, creatives, and change-makers who feel something stirring - but are waiting to feel ready.

The ones who are standing at the edge of something new, with emotions that whisper stay small.

This is your moment to choose.

Because fortune does favour the brave.

Especially the ones who quietly, consistently choose to act in service of who they are becoming.

If you’re standing at the edge of a decision, a shift, or a calling, and the feelings are loud, I invite you to ask: What would the brave part of me do next?

Lisa x

References:

• Barrett, L. F. (2017). How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

• Brown, B. (2012). Daring Greatly. Gotham Books.

• Gross, J. J. (2014). Emotion regulation: Conceptual and empirical foundations. Emotion Review, 6(3), 261–269.

• May, R. (1975). The Courage to Create. Norton.