You do not need courage, you need clarity

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner: I work as a Software Engineer; my pocket is filling but not my heart. I quit my job two years ago and volunteered for an NGO (Non-Government Organization) which is a spiritual foundation, but somehow there was no transformation or peace within me even after one year of volunteering. So I went back to job and now after one year of volunteering I feel like doing something meaningful again, but the past failure has left a scar in my life. How do I muster the courage to try something meaningful again in my life?

Acharya Prashant: Courage is not really needed in the usual sense of the word. Usually when you say that you need courage, you want it against a foreseen, predictable, known danger or challenge.

What will you do with courage if you do not quite know what exactly is the quality and nature of the challenge in front of you? You might be very courageous but how will you win if you do not know the enemy?

Who are you going to fight? With great courage, you will fight all the wrong battles. If you lose, that is bad. But if you win, that might be worst. You probably need clarity.

What is it that troubles you? What is it that you do not want to be present in your life? From where does…