How I plucked up the courage

A book about how courage and fear are not mutually exclusive

This book isn’t a guide on how to stop being afraid. I, for example, am afraid of lots of things. I’m afraid of opening official-looking letters, I’m afraid of spiders, the dentist, overtaking on country roads, and I’m afraid that at work they’ll find out I don’t actually know how to do anything. But I’ve discovered that even if I can’t get rid of fear, I don’t have to listen to it all the time. Even with fear, I can find the courage to do things I never thought I could.

This book is about how I found the courage to:

• stop apologising for everything
• say “yes” and embrace adventure
• say “no” when necessary
• not try to be cool all the time
• wear a hat
• not wait for permission
• ask for help
• not always get top marks
• be happy, even when I know it’s just for a moment

Barbora Šťastná (*1973)

She grew up in Kynšperk nad Ohří and Karlovy Vary. She studied screenwriting at FAMU and worked as a film journalist. She was an editor at ELLE magazine and is now the editor-in-chief of Moje psychologie magazine. She lives in Prague’s Žižkov district with her husband and children. In her spare time, she draws, knits, runs, does yoga, or at least plans to start. You can also find her observations on everyday joy on her Štastný blog (Happy Blog). In 2014, she published her debut, Šťastná kniha (The Happy Book), which was so successful that the author had no choice but to write another one.