Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast, where we provide one lesson every single day to help you with your most important job, being a parent.

I'm Ryan Holiday, and I draw these lessons from ancient philosophy, modern psychology, practical wisdom, and insights from

parents just like you all over the world. Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

Just a few seconds of embarrassing bravery. In 2006, Benjamin Mey bought a zoo, literally a zoo. It was broken down and in desperate need of a caring owner. Me and his family were struggling, too. Things hadn't been going well for them either. But in one scene, immortalized by Matt Damon in the

movie version of Me's book, We bought a zoo, Me, explains to his son that our lives are defined by the

moments when we put ourselves out there. We take a risk that if we thought about too much or had been

too deliberate about, we never have been capable of taking. You know, he said,

sometimes all you need is just 20 seconds of insane courage, just literally 20 seconds of embarrassing bravery.

And I promise you something great will come of it. We've talked before about how to teach our kids to be brave. Well, this idea of

breaking down courage into little pieces is a very good one for our parents to pass on to our

kids. A person isn't brave generally, can only be brave specifically in the moment. This is as true

for us and our kids or Benjamin Me's son as it is

for the most decorated soldiers who've ever served in the military. If you read the citations

for many Medal of Honor recipients, for instance, the action that rises to the level of

heroism is almost always just a moment. It's usually not the fighting off of 12 insurgents

for five hours. It's the sprinting

across an open plane for 20 seconds, exposed to enemy gunfire on three sides to come to the aid

of a fallen comrade. Just literally 20 seconds of insane, embarrassing bravery. That's what courage is.

So teach them to give themselves a few seconds of courage.

Tell them something great will come of it.

Promise them.

Of course, that's what my book, Courage is calling is about.

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