The Borrowed Courage File

Thursday. And today I want to share a cousin of the Borrowed Joy Playlist: the Borrowed Courage File.

Here’s the idea. Somewhere — a note on your phone, a folder, an actual shoebox — you keep the evidence of past courage. The kind email someone sent after you did the hard thing. The photo from the finish line. The journal entry from the night before the big decision, and the one from the relieved morning after. The reminder that you have, in fact, done difficult things before.

Because here’s what happens when a new hard thing shows up: your brain conveniently forgets your entire track record. It presents each challenge as unprecedented, you as untested. The file is the counter-evidence. You open it and there it is, in your own handwriting: you’ve been scared before, and you did it anyway, and it worked out — or it didn’t, and you survived that too.

Start the file today. One piece of evidence. Your future scared self will thank you.

When hard things arrive, your brain forgets your track record. Keep the evidence somewhere you can find it.

What’s one piece of evidence of your own past courage that belongs in the file?