In Conscious Courage, Maureen Stearns states that courage is a deliberate decision to act or think or be, regardless of your emotions and halting thoughts, an actual force that is felt from within that enables you to say yes! to what you want and no! to what you dont want. Courage is knowing that all your courageous acts will end up blossoming into something much more significant. Therefore, conscious courage is the discovery of your best self, the best in others, and knowing you had a part in making the world a better place.

The goal Stearns had in mind when writing this book was her desire to help us understand that discomfort goes hand in hand with growth. Because of her experiences while going through a painful divorce, Stearns tells us first hand how she was able to forgive, heal and move on with her life. The author is very successful in explaining that fear produces discomfort and that discomfort carries us toward personal growth. But, when you choose to be courageous, discomfort will not be as distressing or last quite so long.

Stearns divides her book into three sections, making the book organized, straight to the point, and, therefore, easy to understand her concepts. In addition, each bullet point that is reiterated with an example on one page contains a relevant quote by a well- known person on the corresponding opposite page. My favorite quote was by John Wooden, Head Basketball Coach Emeritus UCLA, who stated, Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others perceive you to be. This format helps to make the book easy to read and very understandable.

I believe anyone and everyone could benefit from reading Conscious Courage because if we learn the few basic steps to make us think or act courageously, we will become stronger, wiser and more complete as a person. We can begin to act courageously by simply giving a call to a long lost friend, writing down what we believe will be the outcome of the call beforehand and the emotions we will feel, and then comparing the actual results with our predictions. The outcome is not what is most important because we feel better because we have made a deliberate decision on something we wanted to do. If we learn to work through our discomfort zone, we will complete a challenge. When this happens, we overcome our fears, and we can be happier and live a more meaningful life.

The most meaningful part of the book to me was in the Experiencing New Things section where Maureen tells us how to unclutter in order to move forward, a problem I personally struggle with. We are also told to resist overspending by substituting something more meaningful and sustaining. After all, overspending gives an emotional boost which is short lived and will probably contribute to the clutter problem anyway!

Maureen Stearns did an excellent job of writing and explaining how we can all benefit from gaining conscious courage. The book was quite easy to understand and to the point while giving relevant and interesting examples. She shows us how to use I Statements to clarify feelings, desires and intentions regarding a situation. Stearns says that, This is the Ultimate YES! -- the ability to move beyond fear and hesitation to embrace every day with Conscious Courage. By doing this, you make yourself a better person and the world a better place definitely!

I look forward to Conscious Courage, Vol. II, Maureens upcoming project!