Jumping off the high dive won’t make you brave forever. It just proves you were once, and that’s useful evidence.

Courage is not a trait you acquire and keep, which is why doing one frightening thing does not make the next one easy. What it leaves is a fact you can check: on that day, scared, you did it anyway. That fact is the most useful thing you own at the next edge, because it answers whether you can.

Collect them deliberately rather than waiting for them to happen. One small frightening thing a month is plenty, and write down what it was. Read the list when you are at the top of something, since by then an argument will not help and evidence might.