The Character of Boldness

Character Leadership - The Character of Boldness

“People who make no mistakes lack boldness and the spirit of adventure. They are the brakes on the wheels of progress” –Dale. E. Turner

Definition:  The quality of standing out strongly and distinctly with confident in what I do or say is true, tight and just.

Cowardice, Fearfulness, Cynicism, Negativity, Discouragement, and Pessimism are the opposite of boldness. These negative traits create a negative attitude that is infectious to others. It causes people not to take the chance to go forward and venture out to do the right thing. Character Leaders speaks the truth and perform a task with passion and conviction regardless of the barriers or fear they encounter. They do so with calculated cautiousness without the fear of consequences or results.  

Character Leaders know that boldness cannot stand alone because if it did, it would be pride at work in us. The character of boldness must be tempered by other character traits like cautiousness, wisdom, discernment and discretion etc so that it can be synergized and powerful when executed. It is worthwhile the note “forcefulness of our personality” is not boldness. Boldness comes from the confidence we have in life. Hence, our attitude to improve ourselves with reading and observation of our surroundings will directly affect our ability to venture beyond our limits and comfort zones to engage in simple things in life; from helping a stranger in need and approaching a task or a person with confidence to express your needs or concerns.

Reflection:

Ask yourself; “What are the issue in my life that can improve with more Boldness? Do I allow obstacles to block my path to progress and cave in to fear?” Have you ever looked back and regretted you should have done certain things you wanted to? If you are always regretting your decisions, you have to seek a mentor in life to teach you the character of boldness. There is a BIG difference between faintheartedness and cautiousness. 

As Character leaders, we must extend ourselves to other people with boldness and what flows out of boldness are gentleness and respect. Forcing our personality and approaching a situation with anger is not boldness. A character leader understands that in order to be bold, he/she must also have the character of cautiousness so that others will extend their respect. However, boldness usually comes with anger and this is why it is always seem as an aggressive behavior. It is good to note that anger in itself is not wrong if it is controlled anger. Controlled anger is a form of our natural defense to protect us from people that want to harm us.