20 Courageous Acts That Make You Bold and Fearless

There is no small act of courage. You can't compare the courage it takes to battle cancer with the courage it takes to become a doctor. Both are very brave acts. You can't compare the courage it takes to become an Olympian with the courage it takes to raise a physically or mentally challenged child. Both are incredible feats. You can't compare a firefighter that saves a life to an eight year old child that consistently stands up to a bully. Both acts are heroic.

Most of us don't think of ourselves as brave people.  Yet that's exactly who we are. If you reflect on your life, one decade at a time, and write down your bravery, I'm sure you'd be surprised.

I think every brave thing we do in life counts. It's time we claim our bold and audacious selves.  

It's time to celebrate our fearlessness. As we do, we can begin to think of ourselves as bold people who are sometimes fearless instead of fear-filled people who try to be bold.

Everyday acts of courage to practice and celebrate:

1. Apologize
It takes courage to admit when you are wrong. It's a bold act to admit when you make a mistake. Apologizing takes you out of your comfort zone and enhances your relationships. That's big. 

2. Be yourself
Don't imitate anyone. Take off your mask. Allow yourself to become vulnerable. Share your flaws with others. See perfection in your imperfections. Who you are is a gift to the world.  Allow yourself to shine.

3. Take responsibility.
You are where you are in life because of the choices you make. If you don't like what you see, change it. One question I ask myself often is, "Is this the life I want to create?" If you don't exercise, make a change. If you need to get out of debt, spend less. Responsibility brings freedom.

4. Keep your commitments.

Write down everything you say you are going to do. Write down the promises you make to others. When you keep your promises, you build self-respect. Others respect you as well. 

5. Rock the boat.
Speak up. Make a difference. Share your feelings when you witness an injustice. Practice sharing your opinion. Don't allow someone to take advantage of you. Learn to say, "no." Refuse to hold back when your gut says to move forward.

6. Let go of the past.
Stop wallowing over what could have been. Forgive yourself.  Forgive your parents. Forgive everyone. What happened is over unless you keep it alive by reliving it in your mind. When we know better, we do better. It takes courage to move on.

7. Grow.
Learn something new. Step into the unknown. Change the way you do things. It doesn't matter if you get it the first time. Try again. Give yourself permission to be a beginner. Seize the opportunity. Growth brings new opportunities. 

8. Listen.

Listen to people who disagree with you. Listen to family members that think you are wrong. Listen to the elderly person in the coffee shop. Listen when you only want to speak and give advice. Listen and thank the other person for sharing.

9. Help others.
Help someone who doesn't help you. Help others when you don't have the time. Help someone who can't pay you back. Help someone when you are the one needing help. Learn to be of service. That's why we're here.

10. Love.
Turn the other cheek. Overlook annoyances. Be kind to each other. Be truthful. Accept differences. Love is a verb. Spend time together. Act like a loving person. You can love difficult people as well. Forgive them and wish them the best. Let them go with love.

11. Practice gratitude. Count your blessings. Tell the people in your life "thank you." Be grateful for the people you love and for the people that love you.

12. Choose to be happy.
Make a decision that you will think happy thoughts, speak kind words, and spend time doing things that bring you joy. Have a good attitude. See the glass have full. Look at the bright side. Expect the best. Choose to focus on what's good. 
13. Learn from your mistakes.
Reflect on what went wrong and what you could have done better. Look for your lesson. Choose to grow forward. Be gentle with yourself. Make a new plan. Try again. Refuse to give up.
14. Relax.

In our intense and fast paced world, it's easy to feel like you're missing out or being left behind. You do too much, work too much, and miss the joy of everyday living. It's bold to step back, take a break, and relax. 

15. Follow your dreams.

Take action daily toward your goals. Ask for help. Network. Research. Plan. Take more action. Adjust your plans as you go along. Be open to something even better. Never give up. Adjust. Push on.

16. Enjoy the small things.

Take time to revel in a flower blooming, the taste of a glass of cold water, the different shades of green, a child's smile, or an elderly person's worn hands. Enjoy the smell of clean clothes and the taste of a fresh slice of bread. Enjoy a brisk walk, a quiet morning, or a star filled night. 

17. Go the extra mile.

Allow someone to go in front of you in traffic or at the grocery store. Do more than what is required of you at work and at home. Hold a door open. Surprise someone. Don't keep score. Leave a big tip and help someone believe the world is a generous place. 

18. Ask for help. When you are stuck, addicted, or unhappy, seek professional help. Hire a coach, a therapist, or join a support group. When you are overwhelmed at work, ask for assistance. When you don't understand something, ask for an explanation.

19. Put family and friends before stuff. If you value your loved ones, make them a priority in your life. Work less and play more. Laugh. Create traditions and rituals. Find hobbies and activities that everyone enjoys. Have fun. Experiences bring more meaning than needless shopping.

20. Love Yourself. Accept your imperfections. Be your own best friend. Show yourself compassion, understanding, and respect. This is the most courageous act of all.

 

Tips for overcoming the fear of being bold

I’m working on being bold – whether it’s in a one on one conversation or in a presentation. In the past, I’ve often watered down what I say to avoid upsetting anyone. And I’m not alone. Many of the people that I coach are concerned about being bold. As a result, they dilute their message so much that they have zero impact on their audience.

Cultivate an attitude of boldness

Being bold is not something that you can “pull out of a hat” when you’re giving a presentation or speech. You need to develop an attitude of speaking out in your day to day life. Otherwise you won’t develop the courage to be bold in your presentations. Practice saying what’s on your mind when you’re with just one other person or a small group.
I’ve found blogging to be extremely useful in helping me be bold. Some posts I’ve written have taken me some time to publish because of my fear, but having done so I’m bolder. Here are some thoughts to help you develop an attitude of boldness in everyday life.

1. Stop being nice

What stops me being bold is that I want to be liked, I want to be nice. I don’t want to have to deal with anyone being upset or offended by what I’ve said. It’s worked for me in many ways, but it holds me back too. I keep this quote on a post-it above my desk:

2. Saying what you think enhances your career

Do you hold back saying what you think because you want to make sure that everything you say makes perfect sense and is supported by evidence? Me too. But research shows that people who speak up more are seen as leaders. Now that makes sense, but here’s the topsy-turvy kicker – what they said didn’t have to be particularly brilliant or clever or original. So don’t worry about being perfect, just speak up.

3. Not saying what you think annoys people

I’ve sometimes held back on saying what I think fearing that it will upset people. Then the situation deteriorates and I end of saying what I think, only to be told “Why you didn’t tell me that earlier?”

4. Your ideas can help other people

Do you think your ideas are not worth sharing, that they’re obvious. Then watch this gorgeous, short video (H/T Rich Hopkins):

5. What’s the worst that can happen

Sometimes when I want to say something bold, I stay silent because I just imagine a nameless disaster. But if I think it through  and ask myself “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” then I realise that the worst that will happen is that the person I’m speaking to might be upset for a day. Can I handle that? Yes, I can! And then often they don’t even get upset for five minutes. They just thank me for being straight! Often the consequences that we fear from being bold don’t materialise.

How to be bold in your presentations

Here are some tips for developing boldness in your presentations:

1. Ask your audience to take action

Just giving your audience information is the safe option. But what does it accomplish? Instead, answer this question:

“What do you want your audience to do with the information you’re giving them.”

Then use your presentation to persuade people to take that action.
For example, in my presentation on Kiva (see my Guide”How to make an Effective PowerPoint Presentation”) I could say to the audience:

“Lending money to poor people is an effective way of helping them.”

It would be interesting information, but I haven’t accomplished anything. Instead I say:

“Lend $25 to a poor person so they can start a business.”

2. Be provocative

In my research on learning styles I came across Frank Coffield, an academic challenging the prevailing mythology of learning styles in education. He said he was inspired by Karl Popper, who wrote in his autobiography:

‘My custom, whenever I am invited to speak in some place, of trying to develop some consequences of my views which I expect to be unacceptable to the particular audience. For I believe that there is only one excuse for a lecture: to challenge. It is the only way in which speech can be better than print’. (Unended Quest Open Court Publishing Company, 1976, p 124)

A friend said to me yesterday “If you don’t miss at least one plane a year, you’re arriving at the airport too early!” Now, I’m not going to change my habit of arriving at the airport in plenty of time, but I can see his point. Similarly, “If you’re not provoking at least one person in your audience, you’re being too nice.”

3. Imagine the friendliest audience

Imagine what you would dare to say if you knew that the audience were the friendliest most supportive bunch of people. That they’re already on your side. Now say that.

4. Express the main point of your presentation in one succinct sentence

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I call this your Key Message. The work of crafting your point into a Key Message has you think through what you really want to say. If you allow yourself several sentences to express your point, you’re likely to have woven all sorts of qualifications and caveats. So don’t. Say it in one clear and succinct sentence.

5. Get rid of weasel words

Do you pepper your phrases with weasel words and phrases? Like “I’d just like to” or “sort of” or “kind of”. They reduce the power and boldness of your ideas. You may not know you’re doing this. So either record yourself and listen back, or ask a friend to give you feedback.
Stop holding back – be bold. You’ll get your message across, spread your ideas and enhance your career.

 

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language

Part 3: Bold and Italics

1. From Part 3. Your code so far from Part 2 should look like the following:

<html> <head> <title> </title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffff00"> <font color="#0000ff"> <h1 align="center"> My very first html page</h1> <font size="6"> Welcome to my html page <br> <center> where I am showing my html skills </center> </font> <p align="right"> <font size="4">  I want to learn everything I can about html </font> </p> <div align="left"> So I can make cool web pages</div> </font> </body> </html>



2. BOLD
   Text can be accented in many different ways. The first of these is BOLD.
   Bold is symbolized by a <b> in front of the text you want bold, and a </b> at the end of the area you want bold. Inserting text into your file that is surrounded by the bold tag will accentuate the text. This text is bold. This text is normal.
    
3. ITALICS
   Text can be made to stand out by using ITALICS. This causes the text to slant. The tag is a simple <i> in front of hte text that you want italicized and a </i> at the end of the text you want italicized. 
   This text is in italics. This text is not.
    
4. UNDERLINE
   Text can also be made to stand out by using the UNDERLINING text. The tag for this is <u> </u> and is used similar to the bold and italics. Many web designers do not use this tag often since the underline is perceived on the web as a hyperlink.
   This text is underlined. This text is not.
   Often 2 or three of these are used together.
    
5. USING EFFECTS
   Let's insert these into our html
   Notice where I put the <i> and <b>
   <html> <head> <title> </title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffff00"> <font color="#0000ff"> <h1 align="center"> My very first html page</h1> <font size="5"><b>Welcome to my <i>html</i> page <br> where I am showing my html skills <p align="right><font size="3"> I want to learn <u>everything</u> I can about html<br> So I can make <i>cool</i>web pages</b></font> </body> </html> This code should appear like this:
   
   

   My very first html page Welcome to my html page where I am showing my html skills I want to learn everything I can about html So I can make coolweb pages

   
   Put this code into your notepad and save it as HTML to view it
   Now that you have seen some Font effects, let's look at a complete
   list of effects available on the next page
   Play around with these, then go on to lesson 4.

HTML - Bold

Creating bold text can be accomplished through the use of the <b> bold tag.

HTML Code:

<b>This text is entirely BOLD!</b>

Bold:

This text is entirely BOLD!

Place the bold tag inside other elements to highlight important words and give feeling to your text.

HTML Code:

<p><b>Don't</b> touch that!</p>

More Bold:

Don't touch that!

You may also use it to separate words from their meaning in a dictionary fashion.

HTML Code:

<p><b>Cardio:</b> Latin word meaning of the heart.</p>

Dictionary:

Cardio: Latin word meaning of the heart.

The idea here is to use the bold tag in quick formatting situations. It is not a good idea to bold entire paragraphs or other elements simply because you want the text to be larger or fatter. Use Cascading Style Sheets for font styles and sizes.

Bold Instead of Italics

Italics in print are used for a number of reasons, including listing book and movie titles, foreign words and mathematical variables, and for emphasis. Unfortunately, italic text is often not as clear on the Web, so many editors use bold face, or a combination of bold and italics, where italics alone would be used in print. See the examples below.

Print Formatting

The book Le Petit Prince is considered to be poétique et philosophique in French literary culture (See French Wikipedia: Le Petit Prince).

Web Formatting 1 (Bold)

The book Le Petit Prince is considered to be poétique et philosophique in French literary culture (See French Wikipedia: Le Petit Prince).

Web Formatting 2 (Bold and Italics)

The book Le Petit Prince is considered to be poétique et philosophique in French literary culture (See French Wikipedia: Le Petit Prince).

B Versus STRONG

Many accessibility experts recommend using STRONG instead of B for bold face text, and EM instead of I for italic text. The reasons for this recommendation are:

1. STRONG and EM are semantic tags, meaning that they indicate that the author wishes to provide emphasis, which is rendered as bold/italic on a visual browser or in different speaking styles on a screen reader.
   
2. In theory, screen readers could pronounce STRONG and EM in a different voice or style. However this rarely happens in practice (the same is true for B and I tags).

It should be noted, however, that many authors specify bold or italics purely for visual reasons. In these cases, B or I may be better because having a screen reader switch voices without adding true emphasis may be distracting.
NOTE: No accessibility specifications require eliminating the use of the B and I tags, just that they be appropriately used.

Some possible semantic uses of bold & italics.

These items are examples of items that could be tagged as STRONG and EM.

1. Warning labels
2. Key concepts or key vocabulary items in a course.
   But using bold face to highlight every instance of emphatic intonation could be just a bit distracting within a long text but could be useful in visual browsers.

Some possible visual uses of bold & italics

1. To make colored text or small text more distinct and legible.
2. Academic conventions, including:
• Book and movie titles (e.g. Gone with the Wind)
• Foreign words in an English text (e.g. "The Spanish word for cat is el gato.")
• Variables in math, science and computing texts (e.g. x = 2)
3. To make menu items, titles or navigation tools more distinct.
4. Helping users on a visual browser scan for key concepts that may be delimited in another way (e.g. special punctuation) within the text.
5. For design-related purposes.

Using CSS

When bold face or italics is primarily visual and tied to a specific presentational use, it is often better to include a CSS specification for bold face or italics. For instance, if you want a CAPTION tag within a TABLE to always be bold or bold and italics, you can use a CSS declaration such as:

Examples of using CSS for bold and italics

caption {font-weight:bold}
caption {font-style: italic; font-weight:bold;}

However, there may still be times when using a B or I tag to indicate visual formatting is the most efficient solution. From a standards point of view, a style sheet solution such as <span class="bold">Bold Text</span> is just as semantically vacuous as <b>Bold Text</b> and consumes many more ASCII characters in the HTML file.

More Alternate Tags

There are some tags which are not commonly known that are designed to represent different semantic concepts normally indicated by italics or other formatting changes. These tags are supported by all browsers and can be restyled with CSS.

CITE Tag (Italics by Default)

The CITE tag is semantically designated for short citations such as book titles. The default formatting is italics, but CSS can be used to make this tag both bold and italic.

VAR Tag (Italics by Default)

The VAR tag is semantically designated to represent variables in computer code or mathematical equations.

DEL Tag (Strikethrough by Default)

The DEL tag is semantically designated to indicate text that should be removed, and should be used as a substitute for the STRIKE tag.
The INS tag is used to indicate recently inserted text or text that replaces deleted text. The text is underlined by default, but you can use CSS to change it to another format (perhaps a new color, or with a colored background).

CODE and KBD Tags (Monospace Font by Default)

The CODE tag is semantically designated to spell out code such as HTML tags (e.g. <br />) or CSS specifications (e.g. {font-weight:bold}).
The KBD tag is designated to specify keys to be typed by a users (e.g. RETURN) in technical documentation.

HTML 5

The new HTML 5 specification includes additional semantic tags that can also be used in conjunction with CSS to provide appropriate markup and formatting. Some examples include:

• FIGCAPTION – Creates visible text that describes an image.
• MARK – Creates marked or hilighted text