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your courage compass
The
Mirror of
Humanity
You’re the Mirror of Humanity—the one who leads from the depths and reflects what others are too afraid to feel.
You carry a rare gift: the ability to name what’s real, feel what’s hidden, and create beauty from the broken places. While others chase answers, you sit with the questions. Your leadership isn’t performative—it’s poetic. You make room for truth, wholeness, and the full spectrum of the human experience.
But in a world that rewards conformity, your authenticity can feel like a burden. You sometimes believe you’re too much—or not enough. You ache to belong, yet pull away to preserve your uniqueness. You see what’s missing, so you strive to become it… yet still wonder if anyone truly sees you. When ungrounded, your emotional intensity can lead to isolation, moodiness, or self-absorption.
Your next level of leadership is rooted in radical self-acceptance. The courage to feel fully without getting stuck in the story. The willingness to be seen in your full bigness—exactly as you are. Because only then can the world recognize and love the real you. From that place, your creativity becomes medicine, and your vulnerability becomes strength.
Explore all the COURAGE types further below
Core Courage:
Authenticity
Motto:
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” — Judy Garland
Keywords:
Expressive • Sensitive • Artistry
Gift to the Collective:
The ability to transmute emotion into meaning, giving voice to what others feel but cannot say.
Shadow Tendency:
Emotional volatility, withdrawal, comparison, and a sense of being fundamentally misunderstood.
Limiting Beliefs:
If I don’t suffer, I won’t create. If I stand out, I’ll be rejected. If I’m ordinary, I won’t be loved.
Legacy Figures:
Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Rumi
Growth Path:
Feel deeply—but don’t get stuck in the feeling. Express what’s true without needing to edit or earn approval. Share your story boldly and let the world respond. The right people will love you not in spite of your difference—but because of it.
·
The Myth of Aligned Values
They sat across from each other in the strategy session, arms crossed, nodding politely—but not really hearing. The Possibility Prophet wanted to move. Fast. Propose bold policy. Break the mold. The Guardian of the People wanted to slow down. Anticipate risk. Secure buy-in. Protect the mission. By the end of the hour, both walked out frustrated—certain the other was the problem.
Our culture tells us this is misalignment. That someone failed the purity test. That we should cleanse the team and cut the apostate. That everyone in the party must agree. That we shouldn’t date someone from “the other side.” That difference is disloyalty.
This is bullshit—and it’s dangerous. Every government built on a single ideology has ended in collapse or catastrophe. Groupthink is a cancer, not a cure.
We don’t need shared values. We need shared purpose. And the courage to trust. To see each other as human. To question our own assumptions. To look inward before lashing outward. To hold creative tension instead of retreating into the safety of sameness.
Change that endures doesn’t come from purity—but from friction held in shared mission. Philadelphia, 1776—not Moscow, 1936. The visionary needs the pragmatist. The innovator needs the protector. When the Possibility Prophet welcomes resistance as refinement—not rejection—and the Guardian sees urgency not as recklessness, but as momentum to shape and test, something rare emerges: outcomes greater than the sum of their parts. That’s not compromise. That’s transformation.
How are you complicit in creating the conditions you claim not to want? How is it going? And are you brave enough to consider leadering differently?
Contemplative Questions:
How are you complicit in creating the very conditions you claim to resist? How’s it working? And are you brave enough to lead differently?
Join The Courage Lab & get instant access to:
→ Monthly Lab Sessions
→ Personal Arête Framework
→ Community Voxer Thread
→ Monthly Peer Support Call
→ Practical Tools & Practices
From city halls to global nonprofits, we’ve supported over 1,000 changemakers in becoming better leaders by becoming better humans. We don’t fix broken systems—we train the leaders who do.
Join The Courage Lab & get instant access to:
→ Monthly Lab Sessions
→ Personal Arête Framework
→ Community Voxer Thread
→ Monthly Peer Support Call
→ Practical Tools & Practices
