There are times in life when you feel so strongly about a particular matter that you have to be prepared to stand alone with your beliefs and to take action towards them even if nobody else wants to support you. For example, this might be in a political context, it may concern family relationships or it may be an artistic vision. Whatever the circumstance, you will need courage, determination and strength of character to defend your viewpoint and not be beaten into submission by other people’s opinions.

What is it that you must do, no matter what? What is it that your gut tells you simply must happen even though events, plans or people suggest otherwise? What is the cost of ignoring your gut instinct? And what is the opportunity of carrying it out?

I love turning to dictionary definitions when writing articles such as this. In my Chambers dictionary it describes the courage of one’s convictions as: courage to put one’s opinions into practice. The definition for courage is: the quality that enables a person to meet dangers without giving way to fear. From this we can deduce that a fundamental ingredient in standing by the courage of your conviction is to overcome the fear involved.

It doesn’t mean that you can’t have fear. Fear is natural and will always occur in dangerous or tricky situations. The key is to proceed despite the fear. One of my main ways of mitigating fear is to break things down to small, less daunting, logistical steps. For example, if having the courage of your convictions means that you have to have a difficult conversation with someone then there are things that you can do prior to talking with them. You could talk to other people to second guess how they might react or you could spend time preparing an alternative solution to propose to them. Perhaps you might need to gather friendship and support for yourself so that someone is looking out for you prior to and following the conversation.

If having the courage of conviction means changing your job or changing the direction of your business, again it isn’t something you have to do in one big scary step. You can gradually test the water with new ideas whilst still carrying out your main business activity. You can research new options or seek further training in your own time whilst still doing your day job.

At present, I am standing by the courage of my convictions in relation to my creative work. My novel, Tales of the Countess, has been turned down many times by the publishing industry. These rejections frequently give good feedback saying that the book is highly original and well written but sadly it isn’t right for the current market. I spent some time this summer considering different options for the story, some of which might be more ‘publishing friendly’. However, after much deliberation, my gut feel tells me that while there are some areas where I can improve, the framework and main components of the story should not be changed. I feel that the book tells a delightful story which really must stay in its current form. Along with this conviction came the realisation that I may have to consider self-publishing the book and circumvent the normal channels.

Whilst this is an exciting place to arrive at, it is also a scary one. Now it is me against the publishing market. I stand by my work, I stand by my story and I will find a way to get it into book stores. Don’t ask me how - because currently I don’t know. But trust me - I will find a way. However, at the moment all I have to worry about is doing the research to write a new and better draft. Later on I can figure out the commercial side of getting it to the market. If I worried about the publishing aspect too much now then I would never get any writing done and there will be no wonderful, finished book to promote!

It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to see through the courage of your convictions. What matters is that you take gradual action towards your vision. My writing project could easily take another year or two, possibly more. That doesn’t bother me. As long as I keep taking action then I will, one day, succeed. Remember, there comes a point when the pain of not doing something important becomes greater than the pain of actually doing it. What do you need to do now in order to stand by the courage of your convictions?