The power of daring

Despite being a sorted Ravenclaw, I often think that Gryffindors have the advantage in the Hogwarts universe.

While all houses have admirable qualities (Slytherin… questionable), Gryffindors are often the only ones brave enough to put their knowledge into action. This what what actually got shit done and let everyone not be obliterated in the end.

Daring to act on dreams

There doesn’t seem to be much point in dreaming and planning if we’re too afraid of putting it all into action.

The human mind is tricky, and because of its capacity for abstract thinking and vivid imagination, sometimes we convince ourselves that dreaming is the same as doing. But we need tools to work towards those dreams in the present.

While daring can sound like a grand, almost valiant concept, daring is often in the small acts; the carving out of little chunks of your day to work at something – which will, one day, become something bigger.

You can dare to be disciplined, to be consistent, to be resilient even in the face of failure. You can dare to keep going even when other people tell you that you’re wasting your time.

In today’s world where complacency and giving in to ‘reality’ seem like the go-to, there is a quiet subversiveness in daring.

Anyone can dare to dream, but if you don’t do anything about it, you’re probably going to wake up one day towards the end of your life with a shit ton of regrets.

Daring to know yourself

Daring also means daring to be ourselves in a world full of posers and pleasers.

It’s too easy to be what someone else wants us to be, whether our parents, your partner, your friends, your boss, etc, due to fear or rejection or not fitting in.

If we need validation or approval from other people that we are doing life right, we probably need to look inwards and ask ourselves ‘What do I really want?’ and ‘What do I you really value?’ We might be on someone else’s path that they carefully laid out for you, without realising it.

But until we dare to get to know ourselves, we may be stuck being someone’s clone without realising it.

Society has a template for what makes a ‘successful’ person or a ‘financially secure’ person, and if this is often what we’ve been taught to value above all else, so you might be living that templated life without realising. It takes a great deal of daring to step back from that and question what other options are out there for you.

Daring to act on values

Daring is also needed to act on our values. Sometimes a majority of people can act unkindly or unfairly, or even cruelly. But if we’re the only voice of dissent, we may be too scared to say anything.

I often think of this guy when I feel too scared to do something daring, August Landmesser, who famously failed to salute Hitler:

Of course, there is something about being the only one with a certain opinion that makes us primordially scared to speak up.

The heart beats faster, palms get sweaty, voice seems lodged firmed at the back of the throat. It is that quintessential need to belong, to not want to be the struggling, injured gazelle at the back of the herd that gets left behind when the she-lions come along.

But there are no lions coming along if we act with daring. We don’t lose anything. And even if we do, that loss might not be as bad as the regret we feel at not acting with courage to be true to our values.

History shows us examples of people’s daring winning out over fear.

And sometimes it does boil down to certain individuals. India wouldn’t be free of the British today without Gandhi’s daring, and Rosa Parkes, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela would not have made the impact they did.

For the law nerds, we wouldn’t have Justice Kirby’s awesome dissenting judgments in the High Court if he was scared of what Justice Gleeson thought of him.

Nicknamed ‘The Great Dissenter,’ Justice Kirby acted on progressive values ahead of his time, to give us kind and fair judgments, with the confidence that one day the law would adapt to become kinder and fairer.

It’s fine to believe in equality and kindness, but we have to act on these values when the opportunity presents itself – whether that involves speaking up for a person or animal in the minority or who is being treated unkindly, or to engage in some kind of act of service that helps them, or to donate money to an organisation that works for causes we support.

While daring feels uncomfortable to begin with, the rewards you get from it are worth it, in the end.