Courage and spirit are often spoken about in moments of challenge, but their presence isn’t limited to grand, dramatic situations. They show up quietly, persistently, and powerfully in everyday life — not just in what we face, but in how we face it.

Courage is the decision to act in the presence of fear. It’s not the absence of doubt or uncertainty — it’s the choice to keep going despite them. Courage isn’t just found in battlefields or emergency rooms. It’s in the person who speaks the truth when silence is safer. It’s in the individual who starts over after loss. It’s in the moment someone takes a step into the unknown with no promise of success, only a belief that they must try.

A single parent working multiple jobs to provide for their children is courage in motion. A young person walking into a room where they don’t feel seen, but still showing up as themselves — that’s courage. It lives in hard conversations, in asking for help, in trying again after failing.

Spirit, on the other hand, is the force that keeps you moving when everything around you says stop. It’s resilience, belief, and fire rolled into one. Spirit is what refuses to be broken. It’s what carries someone through adversity, not with bitterness, but with dignity and grit.

You see spirit in the athlete who trains for years with no spotlight, just hunger and heart. You see it in the business owner who rebuilds after a setback. You see it in the person who gets up every morning, not because it’s easy, but because they’ve made a decision to keep showing up.

Together, courage and spirit are a powerful pair. One gets you to take the first step. The other helps you keep walking when the road gets hard.

You don’t need perfect conditions to have either. You just need to choose them — again and again. In the quiet moments, in the storms, in the spaces where no one is watching.

That’s where courage lives.
That’s where spirit rises.
And that’s where strength is built.