Courage is usually small. It’s raising your hand, not leading the charge.

Picturing courage as something large and dramatic lets you off the hook, since nothing in your week looks remotely like that. The real version is routine and unimpressive: a hand up, a question asked, a plan declined, a name learned. Those are the moments that compound, and they are the only ones you actually get offered. Holding out for the heroic version means never practising at all.

Count the small ones for a week. Note each time you said something you could have swallowed. Four or five entries will tell you more about your nerve than any big story would.