How do you summon courage when something you have to do is scary?

When I was a kid, I was sure our house was haunted. I could hear scary sounds all night long, like thumping. I was sure someone was walking down the hallway a few times. One of my brothers had died at an early age in a motorcycle accident.
One day in the middle of the night I heard the footsteps again, I got out of bed and opened the door, there was nothing there of course, so I walked down the hallway and around the corner to the top of the basement stairs. The house was completely black, and I went down those stairs slowly, waiting for something to grab my feet from underneath. My heart was pounding and I was terrified, but I kept going, down into the basement, feeling my way around the corner where the outside door was, and into the deep dusty black cellar that I knew was full of huge spiders. I got all the way to the end, waited a few minutes trying to see or feel something, and nothing happened so I turned around and went back to my room. Rather quickly as it felt like something was following me, but of course it was all in my head.

The keyword is "have". If you have to do it, then do it.

Fear is a normal human emotion, but you can't let it stop you from doing what must be done.

If I have to, I try to not think about it and do it. If I don't have to...I usually won't even do it.

Pray, Know God Is With You.

I am afraid of heights but hiked alone vertically for a lot of years. things I remember doing included

1) move slower than normal. Realize my coordination would suffer from being afraid
2) Work on breath control. make sure i was inhaling / exhaling at an even rate
3) Go horizontal to the ground at times instead of being upright. sometimes moved on my bottom
4) stay hydrated (fear made me need more water)
5) Make a plan mentally to myself before scaling something that intimidated me. both going up and down

for you specifically @thisgenericnamehere it depends on what you are afraid of and how dangerous it actually is. For example if you are afraid of drag racing / that is smart and you should not be drag racing--that is super dangerous.

In my case I wasn't in danger of losing my life but just have a fear of heights

I remind myself of the time I moved abroad all alone, to a place where I didn't know anyone, without ever having left my home country before.

It was scary af, but I managed.

I just go on and do it. I started doing everything scared years ago. I'm still scared, but I know I'll do what needs to be done.

You need to do something.

Brave or not, it has to be done.

So just do it.

☑

A year ago…my friends and I went to big bear lake… I heard about how narrow the road is up on those mountains…

I protest and suggested “ how about the beach instead!” But they really wanted to go to big bear.

I had to be in a very calm zen mood.

When we got up those mountains- I just closed my eyes while still trying to make casual conversation

Disassociation.

Not brave.
I have learned to not rely on myself only.