How Big Is Your Brave?

Okay, here's my obligatory apology for slacking in Bloglandia lately.
The Best Of Intentions has taken a backseat to everything else going on in my life right now.
Which is ridiculous, because this little slice of the internet is basically my best friend.

Now that the obligatory apology is out of the way, I want to talk about a post that has been in my drafts for a long time. A month or more. After this weekend, it seems even more relevant.
If you'll recall, for my birthday this year I wrote 24 things on my 24th.
Some things were just random facts about me.
Some things were silly and meaningless.
Some things were hopes and wishes I had.
#12 said "I want to do something that takes a lot of bravery this year. I'm not very brave. I want to work on that."

Brave.
I wanted to be brave this year.
Not confident.. Brave.
There's a difference.

Since my birthday, I've really been thinking about that a lot.
In fact, on more than one occasion I've given myself the "be brave" pep talk. That's what I refer to it as now, because I've given it to myself so often.
And since I decided I wanted to be brave, I have done so many things that I wouldn't have normally done. Some of them have turned into really, really good things and some of them have turned into learning experiences. Either way, I haven't regretted a single one.

I spent a long time though trying to figure out what it meant to be brave.
What the non-dictionary definition of "brave" was, but also what "being brave" meant for me.

I think that so far, for me, being brave has meant saying "yes" to something I would've said "no" to.
Being brave has meant doing something I wouldn't have normally done, because I was too scared.
Being brave has meant saying something when I usually would have kept my mouth shut.
Being brave has meant listening to the opinions of others and then ignoring them and doing what I think is best for myself.

So remember back in the first week of January when every one was choosing a word for 2014?
Mine has been Brave.