Star Lee Blog

Hi,

I wanted to share with you a letter I received from a member of the Star Lee Community after she received the Inaugural Issue of Star Lee Magazine themed Courage.  Sandra speaks about Star Lee Magazine and how courage affects us all.

Love & Light,
Star**
______________________________________________________________________________

Facets of Courage

When someone writes about courage I am intrigued, so I was stunned when I learned about the launch of the new Star Lee Magazine and that they had the courage to focus on courage as their inaugural topic! Why am I curious? I always wonder: “What’s going to be their angle?” Every day I receive Google Alerts highlighting articles that use the word courage or courage leadership, and find that most address physical courage such a famous athlete overcoming an injury, an innocent child suffering from a grave and rare illness or those confronting fears much the same as history’s Sojourner Truth or Sacagawea.

While physical courage is important, there are actually a variety of facets to courage. To recognize courage, it helps to distinguish the various facets. Some of us manifest certain types of courage well but come up short in other areas. There is spiritual courage, emotional courage, leadership courage, ethical courage, physical courage, political courage and personal courage. Star Lee magazine chose “personal courage”—the one an everyday female entrepreneur (like you and me) can apply right now. For example, in the article “Work-Life Balance” the writer wants you know “you have already arrived” so you stop sabotaging your life by worrying too much to prove your worth. For my work in feminine courage, “to know you’ve already arrived…” means the person lives a “courage-centered” life—it’s intentional!

The most critical issue as you embrace this forgotten virtue is to give yourself permission to claim your everyday courage—not the media’s angle of sensational, amazing, tragic or scandalous types of headlines, but the type that allows you to brand your style. When self-doubt creeps in, ask: “How can I act with courage?” The way to access your courage is to pause and reflect. Ask: “How frequently do I swallow my voice?” Then determine how courage can differentiate you and showcase your talents. i.e.: the article “What do Mother Teresa & Paris Hilton have in common?”

Once again I was surprised as I read through the “From Our Readers” section. The publisher requested that readers share, among other things, “…where you are stuck.” This is great! Until we take time to stop and reflect, to let go of our attachments to our gadgets, and the self-identification to our “busyness,” most of us will remain in our StuckThinking™ patterns. Staying stuck in our scripts keeps us doing the same thing over and over. When a host of difficulties comes your way a courageous woman refuses to give up in spite of all the obstacles.

Editorial Director Dawn Mena’s “Welcome” had great examples of “personal courage” such as starting a new business adventure or saying “no” to a client that does not mirror your values. Dawn brought courage down to Earth rather than making it into a BIG word applied only to heroes or heroines. I interviewed a female Captain Firefighter and she told me her actions on the job have nothing to do with courage or being a hero—it’s what she was trained to do, and she’s doing her job. Dawn’s examples fit my thirteen years of original research on courage, courage leadership and feminine behaviors of courage! I was finally reading something about everyday courage, not the headlines!

Featuring Rosie the Riveter on the cover and Star’s identification to Rosie’s legacy is a good example how Star followed her heart (which happens to be the original definition of courage, corage meaning “heart and spirit”). When other magazines were shutting down, Star focused on her heart’s passion and started a magazine geared toward the style of women entrepreneurs. Star’s personal courage allowed her to design her life, and with no regrets! Regrets are lost courage (generally, never to be reclaimed)! No regrets mean holding oneself 100% accountable for choices including being told by men that if she moved to an avocado farm no one would take her work seriously, but as Star said, “We must embrace the fact that women do entrepreneurship differently.” Star trusted her intuition and trusting intuition is the exact opposite of living in fear. Claiming your own courageous path eliminates regret allowing you to create your courageous legacy daily.

A symbiotic relationship merges when you combine your personal courage and your intention. This says you witness courage at its best—a contagious antidote! Overall, the assessment that I hold is our culture perpetuates pitching courage and fear against each other. I always think of the John Wayne quote that epitomizes and enables this dualistic belief and brands courage as bravado: “Courage is being scared to death…and saddling up anyway.” For me, a strong heart has no fear. Someone said, “One cannot discover new oceans until he [she] has courage to lose sight of the shore.”

The publisher closed with a piece called “Inspiration is Contagious,” and here Star confirms her courageous heart and how she manifested a vision! She is truly a role model for courage. Star’s courage gives other entrepreneurial woman permission to be courageous. I declare, “Courage is contagious.”

As “The Courage Expert,” how will you choose to design your courage to advance in your true work? If you have to work, make it your Truth. In truth, you will find your passion. With unceasing zeal, declare what I call a “Declaration of Courageous Intention” and use this tool as a compass on your life’s journey. Concentrate on intentionally blending courage consciousness with spiritual awareness by joyfully designing a reservoir of courage that becomes contagious in all areas of your life. What matters most is that you take positive action, now, to declare your intent.

May the feminine energy of courage reveal your mysteries and elevate possibilities for you and all women as you discover how you can take your courage to work!

*Sandra Ford Walston*