20 Seconds Of Courage

Change always happens in an instant. What takes a long time is getting ready for a change (or getting used to a change). Ultimately, though, change is when things are different, and on the simplest level, as soon as things are not the same, change has occurred.

I like to think of people making a conscious decision to make changes in life (as opposed to having changes thrust upon them), and I like to think that when people decide to make a change, they do it with complete confidence that it is the right thing to do.

In reality, most people are not confident when they make a change. Change is scary. It's unpredictable. Things might happen as you planned, or they might end up completely different, or nothing may actually change at all. We simply don't know.

More often than not, change is done when people have 20 seconds of courage. That is how long it takes to have the thought to make a decision, to question if it is the thing to do, to convince yourself to do it regardless, and to pull the trigger. With 20 seconds of courage, a great many things can happen; entire lives can change forever.

Explore a character whose decisions are not completely confident, but instead summons 20 seconds of courage. How do they feel about it? Was it enjoyable or miserable? Do they want to do it again? How do they deal with the results from the decision?