Words matter.

At this point, most of you know I have a gripe with the dictionary definition of courage:

Where’s the utility in this?

How does it help me know where to move forward with courage and where to show restraint?

If courage were a currency, and I tried to spend it everywhere, I’d be emotionally broke. 

You have to pick your spots. 

Early in my Return On Courage writing journey, I wasn’t trying to scribe a full book; I was just trying to conjure up a tighter definition of the word “courage”. If you’ve been along for the “weekly dose” for a while now, then you are aware of the following definition:

Perhaps, what you don’t know, is that I have two partners at Courageous. 

Billy Collins runs our Knowledge (gathering) team.
Yours truly runs our Faith (building) team.
Nicole Miller runs our Action (taking) team. 

Billy has one of my most favorite mindset hacks for the Action side of our business. It’s a simple one I wanted to share today that I hope you consider incorporating.

When leading a meeting or writing an email and it’s almost time to wrap it up, most often end with Next Steps. 

Not us. 

“Next Steps” don’t convey the urgency you need to get your projects over the goal line in a timely manner. 

So what do we end with? 

Instead of having Next Steps we have shifted over to Now Steps. 

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods, always used to ask himself the following hard question:

Time is of the essence. 

See if the following helps you pick up time:

Step away from Next Steps.
Step into Now Steps.

Words matter.