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The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.

 

—————

Michelangelo

 

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“He’s a very candid, transparent kind of person, and if he feels strongly about something, he’s going to speak his mind. But as we all know, that can come with a cost, too.”

 

———

John Cornyn

 

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‘non ventrem’ 

 

(no guts)

 

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Ok.

 

I am going to discuss guts a little differently than most people do today mostly because I am going to challenge the “no guts no glory” mantra.

 

First of all … is glory all that it is cracked up to be? <no>.

 

Second … what the hell is glory exactly? Some sense of recognition? <mostly, yes>.

 

Third … a truth to ponder … I can have no guts and still be successful.

 

Whoa.

 

#3 is gonna make some people shit some bricks.

What I mean by #3 is that we associate guts most often with big things and glory and ‘toughness’ and all that crap. I can have none of that, no guts per se, but I can have character, dignity & integrity to fall back on.

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Someone is gonna say “that is guts.”

No it is fucking not.

 

It is character, dignity & integrity. Don’t sell those things short by calling them ‘guts.’

 

Now.

 

I will hedge on that ever so slightly by saying Guts, not manufactured gut, isn’t really a choice.

 

Yeah.

 

That may sound weird but, as with almost everything personal, guts comes from within. That ‘within’ may be your character but I could also argue that guts, often, arises from fear of looking like a ‘lesser version of what people should see of me.’ That ain’t character … that is ego, self-esteem and self-actualization driven behavior, in other words, manufactured guts.

 

That said.

I will also state that even if you don’t have ‘guts’ as a natural instinct that does not make you a coward.

 

I can have no guts and still make a stand. I just may not desire glory.

 

I may be speaking of semantics … but cowards retreat. And I can have no guts and not retreat. That’s my point. You can just stand your ground and stand with some courage of your convictions.

 

Anyway.

 

If I show guts one time and don’t another … does this make me gutless?

 

If I go big one time and … well … go home another <or goo little> … does this make me little?

 

If I do the right thing one time and the wrong thing another … does this make me someone who believes in doing the wrong thing?

 

In today’s world we seem to want to make this a black & white, binary, all-or-nothing discussion.

 

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“The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.”

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D.E.B Dubois

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Let’s face it.

 

This means we are incredibly hard on people who try to do the right thing.

 

We act like everyone can do the right thing all the time.

We act like everyone has some bottomless pit of guts they can tap into 24/7.

 

That just isn’t true. Guts is a finite resource <unless you are an idiot>. That means you will inevitably be faced with a situation which demands guts but you just have none to give at that moment.

 

And that is okay.

 

It is okay because we are defined just as much by our weaknesses and personal foibles as much as our strengths.

“Forcing” guts just is not sustainable.

 

Therefore, we are what we are … imperfect and perfect.

 

Grinding our way through thousands of decisions, choices and actions choosing right versus wrong <often with incomplete information in a semi-fog of distractions & multiple tasks> and when to go big or go little and when to … well … have guts or stand aside.

 

While I would love to suggest that all of this is approached tactically or in some calculated fashion … I cannot.

Far too often we view this in hindsight or from the ‘outside looking in’ and make some misguided judgements and offer some fairly harsh criticisms.

 

That’s crazy if not slightly fucked up.

 

There are certainly clarifying moments in which a choice should be calculated but, c’mon, a person is sifting through thousands of daily decisions and recognizing the truly clarifying moment from the mundane moment just isn’t as easy as we make it out to be. I challenge everyone to look back and decide whether they recognized all clarifying moments they had been faced with <and you would be lyin’ if you said you ‘saw’ them all in the moment>.

 

I am not offering an excuse for those who purposefully are gutless. I am just suggesting being right 100% of the time, having guts over 100% of a decisions & choices and ‘going big’ all the time is not very realistic <and is a recipe for disaster>. Therefore the reality is that there will be gaps, there will be spaces and there will be disappointments.

 

All that said.

 

I will say that everyone has the capacity for guts, going big and ‘doing the right thing’ when it matters.

 

Therefore, we all have the capacity for greatness.

 

Therefore, we all have the capacity for improving our lives in a way which gets us ever-so-slightly closer to the better, and nobler, version of ourselves.

 

Therefore, we all have the capacity for some level of what could be construed of success.

 

Therefore, we all have some capacity for some version of guts.

 

In the end.

 

Guts, to me, are far too often tied to ‘fearlessness.’

 

That’s nuts.

 

Guts are what you exhibit when you have fear.

Guts are what you exhibit when the world almost demands you go small and you make an attempt at something big or just bigger.

Guts are what you exhibit when ‘wrong’, or maybe ‘an easier path’, is the path of least resistance and you decide ‘right’ is the right thing to do.

 

Guts is capacity.

 

Capacity to accept your imperfections, your weaknesses, and accept the fact you will not always get it right.

 

Capacity to not only envision a better version of oneself but to actually, at least on occasion, do the things that reflect the better version of oneself.

 

Guts doesn’t lead to glory.

 

Guts leads to a nobler version of I. I wish we would measure guts this way more often.

 

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Written by Bruce