This is a guest post by Farouk Radwan of the hit blog, 2knowmyself.com. 

There are hundreds of definitions of happiness. Even when it comes to individuals each person has his own definition of happiness or a list of things that can make him happy.

And even though there is a great debate when it comes to defining happiness almost all people agree  that reaching ones goals and living his dreams is among the things that can make any person really happy.

Courage is one of the traits that if not present can prevent any person from reaching his goals but the courage I am talking about is not the one that lets someone face dangers or fight a thug who wants to rob him but it’s the courage of living in the real world instead of making up an illusory excuse then living with it!

What is real courage?

Steve was a workaholic. He used to spend 16 hours each day at work, not because he had lots of work to do but because he felt really bad whenever he decided to leave early. Steve had almost no social life and whenever someone brings that subject he replies saying that he is too busy working.

The truth is that Steve wasn’t that busy but he was just deceiving himself to protect his ego. Instead of saying that he can’t socialize or that he has no friends he decided to escape to work and claim that he is a workaholic.

Steve wasn’t a brave person and courage is the trait he needed the most in order to improve his life and become happy.

What excuses are you giving?

Now the question is, what excuses are you giving to escape from responsibilities?

Do you blame luck, fate, people, objects or anything else just to prove that you are good?

If you are doing so then know that you are in need to build real courage.

Even the false beliefs that people form are the result of lack of courage. Its much easier for a person to believe that he is incapable of success because of a certain limitation imposed on him than to admit that he didn’t try hard enough or that his efforts weren’t good enough.

People use false beliefs of all kinds such as no one can get a job these days,  I am not lucky or God doesn’t want me to succeed in order to escape from the responsibility because they lack courage.

Courage and happiness

As you just saw there are two types of people in this world. Those who fight for what they believe in and those who escape because they are too afraid to fight or to even admit that they are responsible for their lives.

If reaching your goals is among the things that can make you happy, and I am sure it is, then know that courage is the most important trait you need to develop

Written by M.Farouk Radwan

The founder of http://www.2knowmyself.com