Character strength · Courage
Bravery as a character strength: meaning and examples
The short answer: bravery is the habit of doing what you believe is right or necessary even when it is frightening, uncomfortable or unpopular. Most bravery is quiet and ordinary, not heroic. It is one of the 24 character strengths of the VIA classification, in the Courage family: the strengths of will.
What bravery looks like
People with a lot of bravery tend to:
- speak up in a meeting when something seems wrong
- take on difficult conversations rather than avoiding them
- try new things even when failure is possible, and visible
- stand by someone who is being treated unfairly
- feel fear, and act anyway
In everyday life
At work, bravery is raising the problem no one wants to name, asking for the raise, or applying for the job that seems slightly out of reach. In personal life, it is telling a friend a hard truth, going to the doctor about the worrying symptom, or moving to a new city alone.
Bravery is not the absence of fear. People high in this strength often feel just as nervous as anyone else; they simply do not let the nerves decide.
Bravery and the strengths close to it
- Honesty is telling the truth. Bravery is often what it takes to say it out loud.
- Perseverance keeps going through a long difficulty. Bravery faces the difficulty in the first place.
- Leadership often needs bravery: someone has to go first.
When bravery is overdone, or underused
Like every strength, bravery works best in the right amount. Overdone, bravery can turn into recklessness, picking fights that are not worth it, or ignoring real risks. Underused, people stay silent when they should speak, and let fear quietly narrow their choices.
The aim is courage aimed at what matters, with a clear view of the risks.
Is bravery one of your top strengths?
Ask yourself:
- Have you spoken up for something or someone when it cost you something?
- When you are afraid of a conversation, do you usually have it anyway?
- Do others see you as someone who does not back down easily?
If you answered yes to most of these, bravery may be one of your signature strengths. The only way to know how it compares with your other 23 is to rank them.
Find your top strengths with the free test
Where this comes from
The 24 character strengths were described by psychologists Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman in Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification (2004). Happy Me's assessment uses public-domain questions from the International Personality Item Pool and is not affiliated with the VIA Institute.