get the nerve up , auch: get enough nerve up

It took him a year to get the nerve up to invite her to a Brooklyn Dodgers game.

I hate needles and it took me so long to get the nerve up to inject the betasaron.

"When I wrote the script, I had no idea how anybody could get the nerve up to ask someone to marry them.

"I paced Madison Avenue to get the nerve up to show Pierre Deux the accessories I'd made from their Souleiado fabrics," she said.

I could tell that the minute I walked into that bar - you would've just sat there all night and never got the nerve up to ask anyone out if I hadn't come up to you."