In 2015, I set into motion a 5-year plan for my real estate business. My goal was to make enough money to become free of debt, and to allow me to be more generous to others. The plan also allowed for a 5-month sabbatical, and a walk around Lake Superior in celebration of my 55th birthday. The planned date for this trip of a lifetime was to be May 8th – September 16th, 2020. Then 2020 happened, along with 3 other major life events that changed my course of action and put that long walk on hold.

During those life events, I began to explore some new training and education opportunities in the world of certified coaching and leadership development. What came out of these two very separate, yet related things, is a new adventure and a different type of long walk. I have now embarked on a lifelong walk that takes as much courage as anything I have even done before. It started with a conversation to define what my new journey would be like, and landed on the name Courageous Coup and the statement ‘Overthrowing past mindsets and arising with wisdom and purposeful growth’.

In the dictionary Courageous is an adverb defined as “having, showing, or done with courage—the quality of being ready and willing to face negative situations involving danger or pain.” Here is what it really means. CHANGE! Change is both a verb and a noun and is defined as “to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone:” Underneath that meaning is an even bigger word: FEAR.

Coup means to overthrow. For me personally, if I am going to embrace change, I usually have to overthrow something else. Usually a poor mindset. It could be around work, business, relationships, health and habits or a million other things. If you overthrow one thing there is always, and I do mean always, a vacuum left. A huge hole that will fill itself with something. In order to determine what will fill that hole, you need wisdom. To move forward in a new way you will need purpose.

With these ideas in mind, the questino becomes: Why do any of these definitions matter at all and why am I starting this blog? Because this blog is going head-to-head with each of these things and will start to walk them out. Change happens every day, sometimes a little at a time and sometimes in big giant events that knock us off our feet. Change happens to us, in us, around us and through us.

It is a reality. In my life I have navigated all kinds of change; relationships, business, financial, medical, family, the world around me, inside myself, and in spite of myself. In that same life I have learned a few things and the time has come to share them.

Over the next few weeks and months, we are going to look at these words, define them, discover a new mindset around them, gain wisdom from them, and grow in them. We will look closely at what a Courageous Coup is and the principles it works with.

This blog will be examining some foundational tools and values that equip you to face change with courage. Here we will discuss what these ideas and words mean, starting with change, fear, and courage. We will also look at mindset, wisdom and growth. Then we will discuss values and priorities and what they are, and how they impact us and help us to better understand ourselves, what we do, how we do it and what wisdom we are going to arise with.

I am still going for a long walk, but for this one you are invited to join me. It might be the walk of a lifetime!

Teresa M Cleveland
Change Agent
Courageous Coup, LLC