Brave doesn’t have to be dramatic. Sometimes it’s just raising your hand when the room disagrees.

Courage in your head is loud and well lit, with music. The real version is much smaller than that. It is a slightly unsteady voice saying the unpopular thing in a room where everyone already nodded, and it lasts about nine seconds. Nobody claps afterward, which is part of why it takes something.

There is probably one thing you have been swallowing in a class, a practice, or a group chat. Say it plainly, once, without building a case first. You are not trying to win the room, only to be counted as present.