A Literary Prescription for

Courage to Change

For the edge of the leap, when staying the same has finally become the harder thing.

There is a particular kind of courage in change: the moment you admit that the life you have no longer fits, and that staying safe has quietly become its own kind of risk. It is frightening, and it should be; something real is at stake. But people find that courage every day, in small decisions and enormous ones. These books and poems are for the edge of the leap, to remind you that you are not the first to stand here, and that the brave thing is usually worth it.

Books Poetry Quotes & Prose

Books

Prescribed reading

Some of these are wise, rousing guides to moving past your own fear, and some are novels of ordinary people who changed things when it would have been far easier not to. Non-fiction and fiction together, they carry the same message: that courage is not the absence of fear, but the decision to act in spite of it.

The Big Leap

Gay Hendricks · 2009

Hendricks writes about the invisible ceiling we place on our own happiness and success, the ‘upper limit’ we retreat from just as things start to change. Clear and encouraging, it helps you recognise the ways you hold yourself back and take the leap into a bigger life. A genuinely useful book for anyone standing at the edge of a change.

“Take the leap, and the net will appear.”

When Things Fall Apart

Pema Chödrön · 1997

Chödrön, a Buddhist nun, wrote the great book for the groundless, uncertain feeling of everything shifting. Rather than rushing to fix or flee it, she teaches how to stay, breathe, and let change do its work. Warm, wise and deeply steadying, it is perfect company when the ground beneath a decision feels anything but solid.

Awaken the Giant Within

Tony Robbins · 1991

A rousing, high-energy call to take charge of your decisions and your direction. Robbins is unapologetically motivating, full of practical tools for breaking old patterns and committing to change. For anyone who knows what they need to do and simply needs a push to begin, it is a shot of momentum between two covers.

The Help

Kathryn Stockett · 2009

In 1960s Mississippi, three women risk everything to tell the truth about the lives they lead, and quietly, dangerously, begin to change the world around them. Stockett’s beloved novel is a stirring portrait of ordinary courage: the decision to speak and act when silence would be so much safer. Moving, warm and genuinely inspiring.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini · 2007

Hosseini’s unforgettable novel follows two women in Afghanistan who find, against almost impossible odds, the courage to change fates that seemed sealed. It is a hard, tender, ultimately hopeful book about resilience and the fierce bravery of women. For anyone who feels their circumstances are fixed, it is proof of how much can still change.

Labyrinth

Kate Mosse · 2005

Mosse’s sweeping novel braids together two women, centuries apart, each called to acts of courage far beyond the lives they expected. Rich, atmospheric and driven by brave, determined heroines, it is a wonderful, absorbing read for anyone drawn to stories of women who rise to a moment of change. Pure, transporting escape with heart.

Poems about courage to change

For the brave thing

from “Columbus”

Joaquin Miller, 1892

‘What shall I say, brave Admiral, say,
If we sight naught but seas at dawn?’
‘Why, you shall say at break of day,
Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!’

Miller’s stirring ballad imagines Columbus’s crew, frightened and ready to turn back, and their captain’s unwavering answer: sail on. Whatever you think of the history, the refrain has become a byword for courage in the face of the unknown. A rousing few lines for the days you can see no shore and must keep going anyway.

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from “Will”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1901

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent or hinder or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.
…All things give way before it, soon or late.

Wilcox writes a ringing tribute to the sheer power of a made-up mind. Change, she insists, is not at the mercy of luck or fate but of will, the firm resolve of a determined soul. It is bracing, old-fashioned encouragement for anyone who has decided to change something and needs reminding how much that decision alone can do.

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from “A Song of Living”

Amelia Josephine Burr, 1918

Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
…I have kissed young Love on the lips, I have heard his song to the end,
I have struck my hand like a seal in the loyal hand of a friend.
I have known the peace of heaven, the comfort of work done well.

Burr’s exuberant modern poem is a hymn to living fully and bravely, to loving, working and risking so completely that nothing is left unlived. It reframes courage not as grim duty but as appetite for life. A joyful, encouraging voice for anyone deciding to stop waiting and truly begin.

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Quotes & Prose

Quotes about courage to change to keep

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

Alan Watts

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Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

George Bernard Shaw

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Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

Helen Keller

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We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.

Max De Pree

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Courage is rarely a roar. Usually it is just the quiet decision to try, made one more time than you wanted to.

Georgia Clare

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From Georgia

Gathering your courage

A guided practice for finding the steady strength inside you, and an essay on using your imagination to picture, and then step towards, a braver life.

Find Your Inner Invincible Summer

Guided meditation by Georgia Clare

A guided practice for reaching the unshakeable strength within you, the invincible summer that no winter, and no change, can touch.

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Use Your Imagination to Create a Better Future

Personal essay by Georgia Clare · The Library

On picturing the life you want clearly enough to move towards it, and letting that vision give you the courage to change.

Read the Essay →

Fear or Intuition? Learning to Trust Your Inner Yes

A short talk by Georgia Clare

A reflective talk on telling fear apart from intuition, with a simple body-based exercise to help you recognise your inner ‘yes’.

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The 21-Day Meditation Course

Guided Meditation Course · Georgia Clare

Three weeks of short, guided meditations to help you build a calm, steady daily practice, one day at a time.

Start the 21-Day Course →

Questions people ask

Reading for Courage to Change

Where should I start?

Start with The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, a clear, encouraging book about the invisible ceilings we set on ourselves and how to move past them. And if you would rather be carried by a story, A Thousand Splendid Suns shows two women finding extraordinary courage to change lives that seemed fixed. The poems below are the sort you read aloud before you do the brave thing.

What can I read when I’m afraid to make a change?

Books that sit with the fear and gently move you through it. When Things Fall Apart is wise, warm company for the groundless feeling of everything shifting, and Awaken the Giant Within is a more rousing call to take decisive action. The novels here, from The Help to Labyrinth, are full of people who changed things when it would have been easier to stay still. Or begin with the poems below.

Which quotes about courage and change are worth keeping?

Quotes worth keeping include “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” (Alan Watts), “Progress is impossible without change.” (George Bernard Shaw) and “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” (Helen Keller). You will find these and more in the quotes section above.

Can reading really give me the courage to change?

It genuinely can. Courage is rarely a matter of feeling fearless; it is doing the thing while afraid, and it helps enormously to watch others do it first. Reading people, real and fictional, who faced the same trembling doubt and changed their lives anyway makes the leap feel possible rather than reckless. These books will not push you. But they will stand beside you at the edge.

Courage to Change

Prescribed reading

For the brave thing

Quotes about courage to change to keep

Gathering your courage

Reading for Courage to Change

Where should I start?

What can I read when I’m afraid to make a change?

Which quotes about courage and change are worth keeping?

Can reading really give me the courage to change?

More prescriptions await.