A private decision can still be a courageous one.

Courage is usually pictured with witnesses. But leaving something quietly, changing a belief without announcing it, forgiving somebody who will never know, standing firm in a room where nobody will hear about it, all of these are the same substance. The absence of an audience does not lower the cost. If anything it removes the compensation.

If you are weighing a difficult choice, do not let the lack of recognition count against it. Ask what you would do if the decision could never be described to anyone. That question tends to strip out the wrong motives.