You and Taylor Swift Share The Same 1,440 Chances
The daily practice of courage doesn't require a Grammy
This Week’s Courage Newsletter
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." - Annie Dillard
Why tiny acts of courage might matter more than the big ones
Scare Your Soul Challenge: The Micro-Courage Challenge
Bottom line: You have 1440 minutes today. How many will you spend being brave?
Dear Courageous Souls (and Minute Collectors),
Do you know how many minutes you have today?
1,440.
Not one more. Not one less.
The same 1,440 minutes that Taylor Swift gets.
That your boss gets. That the person you most admire gets.
And here's the thing about these minutes: each one offers a choice point. A tiny crossroads where you can choose fear or courage, comfort or growth, hiding or showing up.
The problem is, we've been taught to think of courage as this massive, cinematic thing. Saving someone from a burning building. Quitting your job to start a business. Leaping from a plane.
But what if the most important kind of courage isn't the highlight reel stuff?
What if it's the small, quiet choices made in the space of a minute?
Time is perhaps our most democratically distributed resource. We all get the same amount each day, regardless of wealth, status, or circumstance. And each minute offers us the chance to either move toward growth or retreat into comfort.
Think about how we often view time: as something to "spend," "save," or "waste." But what if we viewed our minutes as opportunities to practice courage? What if each minute became a tiny dojo for training our bravery muscles?
Let me tell you a quick story from a recent trip.
I was visiting my son Noah in Columbus, Ohio. After a great day of reconnecting (pizza for lunch, wings for dinner, basketball on TV – the sacred trifecta of father-son bonding), we woke up to find his apartment without power.
No lights. Cold rooms. Confusion.
Was it the building? The neighborhood? His electric bill?
After 45 minutes of fruitlessly scrolling through unhelpful websites and checking outage maps, I suggested we knock on a neighbor's door to ask if their power was out too.
There was hesitation. The reluctance we all feel about disturbing strangers.
"I don't know any of these people." "What if we're bothering them?" "Maybe it'll just come back on its own."
You know the drill. We've all been there.
Finally, I suggested, "What if you just knocked on one or two doors and that's it?"
A simple suggestion, met with agreement. And once in the hallway, something shifted. One door led to another, and by the fourth apartment, someone answered and confirmed that yes, the entire building was without power, and maintenance was already working on it.
Problem solved in 10 seconds of conversation.
45 minutes of uncertainty. 10 seconds of taking a small action.
This isn't a story about a dramatic act of bravery.
It's about a single minute spent pushing against the gravity of comfort and fear.
But that minute changed everything.
Research in psychology tells us something fascinating about how courage works. Studies show that courage behaves like a muscle – it gets stronger not through occasional heavy lifting, but through consistent, regular use.
Each time we act with even small courage, we're building neural pathways that make the next brave act a little easier. Neuroscientists call this "experience-dependent neuroplasticity" – I call it "courage compound interest."
Think about it:
What if you spent just 1% of your minutes today (that's just 14 minutes) intentionally practicing courage?
What if you treated these minutes as your most valuable currency?
What if you realized that waiting for the "big moment" of courage means missing the 1,440 chances you get every single day?
There's a reason why the most successful people in any field talk about consistency over intensity. Small, daily actions create exponential results over time.
And here's the best part: unlike money or energy, everyone gets the exact same amount of minutes. The playing field is perfectly level.
The only question is: how will you spend yours?
This week's Scare Your Soul Challenge: The Micro-Courage Challenge
The Minute Audit: For one day, set a timer to go off randomly 5 times. When it does, ask yourself: "Am I choosing comfort or courage in this minute?" No judgment, just awareness.
The Tiny Brave: Commit to FIVE minutes of courage each day this week. These can be spread throughout the day or used all at once. Examples:
Send the text you've been avoiding
Speak up in a meeting when you'd normally stay quiet
Talk to the stranger in the elevator
Ask for what you actually want
Share something vulnerable with someone you trust
The Minute Journal: At the end of each day, write down what you did with your "courage minutes" and how it felt. Notice any patterns.
The Compound Effect: Notice how these small acts begin to shift your relationship with bigger acts of courage. Are the "big scary things" starting to seem less intimidating?
Remember: You don't need hours of bravery. You just need minutes of choosing courage over comfort, scattered like seeds throughout your day.
With courage, curiosity, and 1,440 fresh chances tomorrow,
P.S. What's one minute of courage you've spent recently that paid unexpected dividends? Email me at scott@scareyoursoul.com. I'd love to hear your micro-courage stories!
P.P.S. Speaking of life-changing minutes... This June, I'm co-leading an extraordinary journey to Peru's Sacred Valley with just 10 courage seekers. Every minute of this adventure is designed to help you practice courage in one of the most beautiful settings on earth. Email me at scott@scareyoursoul.com to learn more about this once-in-a-lifetime adventure (June 15-21, 2024). Some minutes change everything! ✨