The Courage to Create

by Rollo May | W.W. Norton & Company · 144 pages

Rollo May was a brilliant 20th century existential psychologist and this book is a great look at the courage it takes to fully express ourselves as we create our ideal lives. We'll explore the fact that the word courage comes from the French word for "heart" and that, just as the heart pumps blood to all the organs of our body, so does courage pump blood to all our other virtues—without courage, we're effectively dead. This Note is packed with Big Ideas to make sure your courage is beating strong.


“The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.”

~ Rollo May from The Courage to Create

Rollo May was a 20th century existential psychologist who honored the challenges of living a full life and recognized the fact that, in the process of finding that light switch to our lives, we are often confronted with despair.

The Courage to Create gives us some Big Ideas on how we can best move forward in the face of the challenges life gives us! Let’s jump right in.

We’ll start by looking at the root of the word courage:

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About the author

Authors

Rollo May

American existential psychologist and author