Using Fear to Build Courage

April Carrillo, a math and leadership teacher at an international school in Xi'an, China, considers her experiences with helping her students to overcome their fears in her talk on courage.

She starts out by introducing a book that inspired her, which is titled 'In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day' and is written by Mark Batterson. She says that it's about "how to survive and thrive when opportunity roars." The protagonist of the story is said to fight all odds and kill a lion that he chased. Later, the protagonist was elected to be in charge of the king's entire bodyguard -- a position that he achieved due to his ability to overcome the challenges he was faced with.

After leading her talk on courage with this example, April Carrillo explains the influence past experiences have over one's future, and that many of these opportunities are often hidden by fear. She says that in order for one to overcome this, they can stop thinking about changing their circumstances, and start thinking about changing their perspective. Once doing so, they're more likely to focus on what they can do, rather than what they can't.