The Courage Gap: 5 Steps to Braver Action

by Margie Warrell

Do you sometimes hold back when you know you need to speak up or step forward?

Fear creates the gap. Courage closes it.

This powerful guide from the bestselling author of You’ve Got This! cuts through the hype to connect the 'why' of courage to the 'how' of courage. Drawing on cutting-edge research woven together with stories that compel head andheart, The Courage Gap will help you bridge the think/do gap between what you’ve been doing and what you can do; between where you are and where you want to be—in your career, relationships, leadership, and life.

Distilling theory and hard-won wisdom spanning from Margie’s childhood in rural Australia to her decades of living around the world and coaching ‘insecure overachievers’ in Fortune 500 organizations, Margie shares a powerful 5-step roadmap to reprogram the self-protective patterns of thought and behavior that sabotage success to bring your bravest self to your biggest challenges and boldest vision.

At a time when courage seems in short supply, in a culture continually stoking insecurity and anxiety, this book will transform your deepest fears into a catalyst for your highest growth and the greatest good.

Applying the five steps will:
Ignite passion and unlock the potential fear holds dormant
Rewrite the scripts that have kept you stuck, stressed, and living too safely
Reset your ‘nervous’ system and embody courage in critical moments
Transform discomfort as a cue to step forward and expand your bandwidth for bold action
Reset your relationship to failure and make peace with the part of you that wimps out

For leaders, The Courage Gap provides a guide to operationalize and scale the courage mindset across your team and organization to deepen trust, dismantle silos, foster innovation, accelerate learning, and unleash collective courage toward a more secure and rewarding future.

Genres: Self Help, Audiobook, Nonfiction, Psychology

176 pages, Paperback

Published January 28, 2025

About the author

Margie has stepped out of her comfort zone many times since her childhood growing up one of seven children on a farm in rural Australia. Along the way she’s learnt a lot about courage and daring boldly.

An internationally recognized leader in human potential – Margie is passionate about empowering people to think bigger about what is possible for them, engage in braver conversations and lead more purposeful lives.

Margie draws on her background in Fortune 500 Business and Psychology as a keynote speaker, coach, media contributor, bestselling author and women’s leadership advocate. Her programs have helped thousands of people achieve greater success, including organizations such as the UN Foundation, NASA, British Telecom, Hitachi, Body Shop, Accenture and American Airlines

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books whose message just comes along at the exact right moment in life. Recommended by my business coach, this book has activated a spark in my soul that was struggling to ignite as I made my way into the very early days of business ownership. It has re-shaped my way of thinking, allowed me to rescript the thought patterns that had initially kept me scared, “small,” and seeking comfort over expansion, and has reminded me that the journey is by no means linear; that there’s treasure to be found in the setbacks, the meltdowns, and the wobbles. Allowing myself to make peace with the “still-in-progress” parts of myself has liberated something within - a sense of freedom and self-trust that I just know will carry me through every step of the journey ahead. 100% recommend this book for anyone wanting to make a leap in life, whether that be professionally, personally, or simply in the way you show up for yourself each day. As Margie Warrell puts it herself, this book serves as “the roadmap to close the gap between who you are and who you want to become.”

[Keri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the privilege of reading Margie Warrell’s The Courage Gap: 5 Steps to Braver ActionThe Courage Gap the moment it landed in the publisher's hands. This transformative book is a must-read for anyone seeking practical guidance on how to overcome fear and step boldly into their full potential.

Margie’s raw, real, and relatable stories resonate deeply, helping readers confront their own struggles with compassion and courage. Her simple, actionable strategies for rewiring our relationship with discomfort and challenges make bravery feel achievable.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is: “Focus on what you want, not what you fear.” This profound insight is at the heart of the book’s message: to rewrite the stories that keep us stuck and stressed, and to shift from fear to confidence.

As I journeyed through its pages, I experienced a slow and steady transformation. By the time I closed the last chapter, I felt empowered to face both personal and professional challenges with newfound boldness.

The Courage Gap is more than a book on personal growth—it’s a roadmap to living with bold freedom, one brave step at a time. Margie not only inspires bravery but also provides a clear, step-by-step guide to creating a more courageous life.The Courage Gap: 5 Steps to Braver Action

[Richard Sinnott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the concise nature of this book, some suffer from over explanation and drawing things out to fill 300 pages. The ideas were presented well with examples.

Why only 3 stars then? For one thing this book, like most of its ilk, spout similar ideas to many others that I have read so not a lot new in here. That’s not to say it isn’t valuable, I put a lot of stock in repetition and drumming in the basics, but nothing massively new.

The second point is a times through the book, mostly toward the end, there are multiple mentions of faith and prayer. This in my view takes away from what I took to be one of the central premises which is to take personal accountability, by praying and putting faith in someone / something other than yourself takes away from this which I found disappointing.

[Book Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Courage Gap lays out a simple but stirring idea. Fear opens a space between what we think about doing and what we actually do. Courage closes it. Margie Warrell walks through five steps that help readers shift their focus, rewrite the stories they tell themselves, regulate fear, step into discomfort, and learn from the moments when everything falls apart. She threads research, personal stories, and vivid examples like Navy SEAL missions and childhood hardships. All of it points toward one lesson. Braver action begins long before the action itself. It begins inside.

I was pulled by the book's tone, which is warm and direct. It feels like she is sitting with you over coffee, nudging you to look a little deeper. Her stories about her mother, her moves across continents, her husband’s early COVID hospitalization, and her own shaky steps into new roles resonated with me. I liked that she did not hide her fear. She showed it. The writing made the ideas easier to trust.

Her ideas landed with me in a way that surprised me. The pieces about how the brain fixates on danger, how fear makes us shrink, and how easy it is to rationalize our hesitation stuck with me long after I put the book down. I kept thinking about times when I stayed quiet or stayed small because it felt easier. The book stirred a mix of embarrassment, hope, and a kind of restless energy to try again. I especially liked her point that courage is not the absence of fear but the choice to act while fear tags along. It felt doable. It made the book more than an inspirational talk and closer to a companion for moments when you want to run the other way.

By the time I reached the end, I felt a quiet push to step toward the things I usually avoid. I would recommend The Courage Gap to anyone who feels stuck, scared, or tired of circling the same problem. It suits new leaders, seasoned leaders, parents, people in transition, and anyone craving a nudge toward a fuller life. It offers a way to grow into the person you keep imagining when you let yourself dream beyond your fear.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are so many pearls of wisdom in "The Courage Gap: 5 Steps to Braver Action." The pages flow nicely offering examples and call outs that will serve as daily inspiration after you finish the book. We live in a very reactive world and Margie tell us exactly how to claim our lives back and make mental course corrections that will propel us forward to the life we aspire to lead. One of my favorite chapters is about rescripting what is keeping us too safe. "Beware the certainty of your rightness. You don't know what you're wrong about." How true--think of the many assumptions upon which we may big decisions, or worse don't take action. Our take on the world must always be challenged, and only we have the power to rewrite narratives that don't move us forward. How powerful to realize we are creating our own reality through what we chose to believe. I also had to give pause to the ways I was self-protecting. This book came along at the perfect time for me as I prepare to launch a business and am walking into the unknown every day. With Margie's help through her book, I am positioning this move as "on time, an exciting opportunity to learn and figure it out as I go!" Thank you Margie for this big dose of courage, lovingly written to share five mind-expanding steps to a greater, freer, braver life.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most authors broach the amorphous topic of "courage" with reams of research. Others pepper their chapters with crusty platitudes.

Author Margie Warrell took the opposite tact. Her book surrounds us like a weighted blanket with relatable stories from her childhood Australian farm life and portfolio career. In addition, Margie's Five-Step Framework embodies both somatic and intellectual elements. That's refreshing!

As someone who has written or contributed to five books, I appreciate when authors make it easy to keep reading and incorporate their ideas into our daily lives.

Also, I was never bogged down in facts and figures. Her stories flowed and engaged me at each step.

I have already gifted "The Courage Gap" to my executive coaching clients.

We need more courage to navigate today's AI-powered society and challenging political climate.
Margie's newest book delivers much-needed inspiration!

[Yakubu Suleiman · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

I work with people who have survived things I can barely imagine, torture, displacement, the loss of everything. Fear is not theoretical for them. It is the air they breathe. Warrell's book could have been tone-deaf, another comfortable Westerner prescribing courage to people whose lives have been defined by terror. It isn't. She writes about fear as a universal human experience, not a weakness or a failure. The section on victimhood, the careful distinction between being a victim of circumstance and adopting a victim mindset that saps your agency, is one I have discussed with clients. It is delicate territory. She handles it with care. She does not blame. She invites agency without demanding it. That is a gift. I have recommended it to colleagues, and several have found it useful in their own work with traumatized populations. It is not a clinical text. It is something else, a companion for the journey.

[Ruth Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was drawn to the book because of the title and because General McChrystal wrote the foreword, an unusual pairing that intrigued me. What I found was a deeply humane guide to living with fear rather than being ruled by it. Warrell's reflections on her mother's dementia and her brother Peter moved me to tears. Her line "You can't elevate yourself while berating yourself" is the gospel truth.
Ultimately, The Courage Gap is much more than a guide to professional growth; it is a profound lesson in self-forgiveness and personal freedom. Warrell beautifully demonstrates that true emotional resilience doesn't come from a place of flawless perfection, but from the willingness to embrace our vulnerability, step into discomfort, and mine the invaluable lessons hidden within our failures. This book is a rare, life-affirming gift, a masterclass in grit and grace that will sit on my shelf as a permanent reminder to always choose growth over safety. Highly recommended.

[Reese Callahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The leadership examples were what kept me interested. I’m less interested in the usual “believe in yourself” side of personal development, but I do care about how people behave when other people are depending on them. The story about the education leader admitting her mistake before speaking to a room full of people was excellent. Not because she made a mistake, everyone does, but because she was willing to talk about it without hiding behind a perfect version of events. That takes a particular kind of confidence. The final section made a good point too: leadership isn’t only about what you accomplish yourself. People notice whether they feel safer telling you something difficult. They notice whether you punish mistakes or learn from them. I finished that part wondering how often leaders think they’re encouraging people when they’re actually making them more cautious.

[Marissa Sullivan]

To be honest, the failure stuff was uncomfortable to read. I’m good at moving on from mistakes as long as “moving on” means never looking at them again. Warrell calls that out pretty well. There’s a difference between forgiving yourself and refusing to learn anything. I loved the idea of treating failure as something to study rather than something that proves you aren’t good enough. It sounds straightforward, but it isn’t. There are mistakes where you know exactly what you did wrong and still don’t particularly enjoy admitting it. The book didn’t turn those moments into inspirational stories. Sometimes you just made a bad decision. Take responsibility, learn what you can, and keep going. That’s about as much as anyone can do. This was probably the section I needed, even though it wasn’t the easiest one to read.

[Lillian Mercer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must say I hadn’t really thought about how much courage depends on the people around you. I’ve had jobs where I would happily ask a stupid question, and others where I would spend half an hour trying to figure something out myself rather than admit I didn’t understand. Same person. Different environment. That says something. The book’s discussion of making other people feel braver brought that back to me. I liked the idea that you can encourage somebody without taking over their problem. There’s a fine line between “I believe you can handle this” and “Here, let me handle it for you.” I’ve probably crossed that line more than once. The book also made me think about how I respond when someone tells me they’ve made a mistake. My first reaction might be more important than whatever advice comes afterward.

[Trevor Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book made me realize: I spend a lot of time preparing to do things instead of actually doing them. Researching. Thinking. Waiting for the right moment. Telling myself I need a little more information.

The first step in the book. paying attention to what you want rather than constantly rehearsing what could go wrong, made me notice that habit and I also liked the distinction between courage and confidence. I’ve always assumed confidence comes first, then you act. The book argues that action can come first and confidence can catch up later. That feels much closer to my experience. I wouldn’t describe every section as equally convincing, and some of the language around courage is more motivational than I usually prefer. Still, there are a few ideas here that I can actually see myself testing rather than simply agreeing with and forgetting.

[Adeline Mercer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the leadership material felt like it was written directly at the people I’ve worked for. The really interesting part wasn’t about charismatic leaders or taking charge. It was about what happens when a leader is wrong. That’s where things get revealing. I’ve worked with someone who could never admit a mistake, and everyone around them became very good at hiding problems. Nobody wanted to be the person who delivered bad news. Reading the book made me realize how much that behavior comes from fear too. Control, defensiveness, pretending to know everything, it can look like strength until you see what it does to everyone else. I liked Warrell’s argument that vulnerability can actually strengthen leadership when it’s handled properly. Not oversharing. Just being willing to say, “I got that wrong,” and then doing something about it.

[Trent Lawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m glad the book included the uncomfortable possibility that your own story might be part of the problem. It’s very easy to explain your behavior using things that happened to you. Sometimes those explanations are completely fair. But there comes a point when an explanation stops helping. I liked the example of the person who became extremely controlling after a painful experience. That made sense to me because control can look like competence from the outside. You’re organized, prepared, decisive. Nobody sees the fear underneath it. The trouble is that eventually you’re trying to control people and circumstances that were never yours to control in the first place. That section made me think about some of my own habits differently. Not all of them are bad habits. Some probably started as sensible responses. They just aren’t necessarily useful anymore.

[Tolulope Adewale · Rating 4 out of 5]

The idea of “courage rails” was new to me. I’ve always thought of boundaries in terms of protecting yourself from obvious bad behavior, but this is a little different. It’s also about paying attention to who consistently makes you feel smaller, more anxious, or less willing to trust yourself. That doesn’t mean everyone who challenges you is bad for you. Sometimes the people who challenge you are exactly the people you need. But there’s a difference between someone who pushes you to grow and someone who repeatedly convinces you that you’re incapable. I found myself thinking about a few relationships while reading this. Not necessarily relationships I need to end. Just relationships where I probably need to be more aware of how much weight I give the other person’s opinion. That was one of the more practical ideas in the book for me.

[Oluwaseun Adedayo]

I’m usually drawn to books that give me something to argue with, and there were a few places here where I disagreed. I don’t think every fear is something we need to push through. Sometimes fear is telling you to slow down and look again. But I think the book is more careful about that than the title might suggest. The point isn’t to ignore fear. It’s to stop letting fear automatically decide. That distinction changed how I was reading it. I also liked the emphasis on experiments. You can try something without declaring that you’ve chosen your entire future. That is much easier for me to accept. I’m not interested in dramatic reinventions of myself. I’m interested in testing things, seeing what happens, adjusting, and trying again. The book gave me a framework that fits that way of thinking.

[Matthew Robinson · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

The thing I hadn't come across before is her point that a lot of what holds us back isn't our own belief at all, it's something we absorbed so early we never thought to question it. She calls these inherited stories, things we picked up from family or school or the place we grew up, and she says we treat them as facts about ourselves when they're really just things we were told. That hit me harder than anything else in the book. I've spent my adult life convinced I'm not the sort of person who takes risks, and when I actually traced it back, I realised it came from a single comment a teacher made when I was about eleven. One comment. Thirty years of living around it. I haven't completely let go of it, but I've started noticing when it's doing the talking, and that alone has loosened its grip a bit. I don't think I would have seen it without reading this.

[David Taylor · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting the book to end the way it does. Most of it is about you and your own fear, and then in the last part she turns it outward and makes the argument that courage passes between people, that when you do something brave it gives the people watching permission to do the same, and that this makes helping others braver a kind of responsibility rather than a nice extra. I've thought about that a lot since finishing. I've got a team at work, and I've realised that the reason nobody speaks up in meetings isn't that they've got nothing to say. It's that they've never seen anyone do it without getting burned. So I've started going first, saying the slightly awkward thing, admitting when I don't know, and it's slow, but other people are starting to do it too. She's right that it spreads. I didn't believe that when I read it. I believe it now.

[C M · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you’ve ever held back from speaking up in a meeting, hesitated to go after a big opportunity, or avoided difficult conversations —The Courage Gap is the book you need.

Margie Warrell gets how easy it is to play it safe. This book helped me recognize where fear was keeping me small and gave me the tools to push through self-doubt, take bold action, and show up as the leader I want to be.

Packed with real-world stories, research-backed insights, and a powerful framework for building courage, The Courage Gap is a must-read for anyone navigating workplace challenges and change. If you know you need to step up and put yourself out there more—this book will help you do it.

[Holden Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite part in this book had nothing to do with career goals. It was the bit about how we respond when someone else is struggling to be brave. That hit me because I’m usually the person people come to for advice, and I realized I sometimes give far too much of it. Someone tells me they’re thinking about doing something difficult and I immediately start solving the problem for them. Warrell’s point about encouraging people without taking away their responsibility for the choice made me rethink that. Maybe sometimes “you can handle this” is more helpful than a ten-minute list of things they should consider. I’m still going to give advice when it’s asked for. I just think I’ll listen first now. That was an unexpected lesson from this book 👍👍👍

[Kelsey Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found myself thinking about the “one-brave-minute” idea while I was standing outside my manager’s office. I’d been putting off a conversation for almost a week because I kept imagining how awkward it would be.

The idea is simple: you don’t have to become fearless, you just have to get yourself to take the first minute of action. That felt much more practical to me. The book doesn’t treat courage as something you either have or don’t have. The part about our stories was especially relevant. Sometimes I’ve already decided how something is going to go before I’ve even done it. I didn’t agree with every example in the book, but there was enough here to make me question a few of my own habits.

[Wesley Kensington · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a meeting I wish I’d read this book before.

Nothing terrible happened. I just had a point to make and watched myself decide, in real time, that it was probably better not to say it. Someone else raised almost the same point twenty minutes later. That was irritating. The book’s discussion of courage in leadership brought that moment back to me. I especially loved the concept that leaders have some responsibility for making other people feel braver. It’s easy to tell employees to “speak up” and then react badly when they actually do. The example of the leader admitting a poor judgment call made that point without needing a complicated explanation. People notice what leaders do with their own mistakes. Well, I’m not going to pretend the book solved my hesitation overnight, but it did make me pay closer attention to what happens just before I decide to keep quiet.

[Brianna Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s a particular kind of overthinking that this book describes very well. You know you need to make a decision, but instead of deciding, you collect more information. Then you collect more. Then you convince yourself that another week will give you clarity. I recognized myself immediately. The book’s argument that the biggest barrier is sometimes the unwillingness to do what you already know you should do was uncomfortable because it was true. I don’t need more information about a conversation I’ve been postponing. I need to have the conversation. That sounds painfully obvious written down. Somehow it’s much easier to see when someone else says it. I liked that the book keeps moving from thought into action. It doesn’t let you hide entirely inside the thinking part.

[John Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know anything about this book when I started it. I picked it up because I was going through a rough stretch and someone said it might help. The part that stopped me cold was where she writes about her brother, who ended up paralysed after an accident, and how he responded by saying there were a thousand things he couldn't do anymore but five thousand he still could, and he intended to do them all. I read that paragraph three times. I've been sitting around feeling sorry for myself about a situation that is nowhere near as hard as his, and here was this man refusing to let it define him. It made me feel like I'd been giving up on things I had no business giving up on. That one story did more for me than the rest of the book put together, and I mean that as a compliment.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a raving fan of everything Margie Warrell writes. The Courage Gap is a practical, quick read that does a great job of explaining both why we default to fear and how to get past it. We have a weird belief system about courage in Western society: things like climbing the tallest peaks and quitting our jobs to backpack across the globe are often the things we think of requiring courage, but isn't it the tiny yet powerful actions we choose every day to not default to doing what's comfortable and easy? Margie helps you target the things that get us stuck by seeing how actionable and enjoyable it is when we make tiny shifts that create transformation in our lives.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leaving a corporate job to go out on my own was exciting—but also terrifying. The Courage Gap helped me see how often I was holding myself back, second-guessing decisions, and playing it safe when I needed to take bolder action.

Margie Warrell gets it. She lays out exactly why we hesitate and how to push through the fear that comes with stepping outside our comfort zone. What sets this book apart is how accessible, credible, and inspiring it is. She combines real-world stories with an evidence-based framework that’s not just practical but incredibly powerful.

If you're building something on your own and struggling with self-doubt or hesitation, this book is a must-read.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know I need to step up, push for change, and lead with more confidence—but too often, I get stuck in my head, overthinking everything and waiting until I feel “ready.” The Courage Gap was the wake-up call I needed.

Margie Warrell writes in such a relatable way that makes big concepts feel accessible and immediately relevant. She breaks down why we hesitate, how self-doubt holds us back, and what it really takes to lead with courage. The advice is practical, real, and what I needed to hear to stop second-guessing myself and take action.
If you’re in a leadership role and struggling to trust yourself, influence others, and make bold moves, read this book.

[Jane Barwis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Running a business demands the ability to make decisions that have considerable financial risk or great impact to culture and outcomes. The Courage Gap is a great tool to help push through doubts and take action.

Margie Warrell writes in a way that’s down-to-earth and completely relatable—no fluff, no overcomplicated theories, just real, practical advice for moving forward. This book helped me recognize where fear was holding me back, both in my business and personal life, and gave me the push to step up and trust myself more. If you’re a business owner focused on growing your business and need to start making bolder moves, read this book.

[Savannah Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

There were a couple of places where I thought, okay, I’ve heard this before. Then I’d get to an example that made the point land differently. The idea of courage itself isn’t new. Neither is the idea that fear can hold you back. What I found more useful was the five-part structure and the insistence on actually doing something with it. I especially liked the progression into discomfort. I’m a great thinker and a mediocre starter. Give me enough time and I can analyze an ordinary decision into complete paralysis. The book reminded me that thinking harder isn’t always the missing ingredient. Sometimes you need to move. Not make a huge life decision. Just move. I’m still not convinced every exercise will become part of my routine, but there are two or three I can see myself coming back to.

[Landon Callahan]

I must say, the Alex story bothered me because I recognized the pattern.
Something goes wrong, you get hurt by it, and then you start trying to control everything so it can’t happen again. That can look like being responsible from the outside. Inside, though, it’s often fear running the show. The book’s discussion of failure made me think about a couple of situations at work where I became much more rigid after things didn’t go according to plan.

The useful part for me was separating the event from the story I attach to it afterward. I finished this section and immediately thought of one particular mistake I still talk about as if it happened yesterday.