Master Your Fears

"Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he
who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself
at every step." -- As A Man Thinketh

I've heard it said that we're born with only a few fears -
like the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All
other fears we learn along the way. Like the fear of
failure, the fear of rejection - even a fear of success.

I believe our greatest enemy in life is fear, because fear
keeps us from doing many of those things we would like to do
that would make our life more complete and more enjoyable.

Doubt is the firs cousin of fear and precedes it. We weren't
born with doubt. Our habit of doubt has grown throughout our
life.

If we dwell on a doubt and give in to it, it then grows into
fear. The Apostle James reminds us that doubt makes us
ineffective, "a sea that is tossed and driven by the wind;
and every decision you then make will be uncertain, as you
turn first this way, and then that."

If most of our fears and all of our doubts are learned along
the way, then we can "unlearn" them by becoming masters of
our thoughts. I've heard Zig Ziglar quote Mark Twain when he
said, "True courage is not the absence of fear, it's the
mastery of fear."

The people who live the life of their dreams have just as
many fears as those who live miserable, unfulfilled lives -
they just learned to master their fears instead of allowing
their fears to master them.

Norman Vincent Peale, writing in "You Can If You Think You
Can", provides us with a prescription for mastering fear and
doubt. "You can cancel out fear with faith. For there is no
force in this world more powerful than faith. The most
amazing things can happen as a result of it... there are two
massive thought forces competing for control of the mind:
fear and faith, and faith is stronger, much stronger. Hold
that thought of faith's greater power until you believe it,
for it can be the difference between success and failure."

Ambrose Redmoon said that, "courage is not the absence of
fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more
important than fear."

Everyone is afraid at some time or another. Those who
succeed in conquering fear have put their focus on what's
more important to them rather than on the fear.

If your young child darted into the street in front of
traffic, you'd easily overcome the fear of any physical
danger that retrieving the child would pose. The child's
life is more important to you than the fear. So focus on
what's beyond the fear - what's on the other side - when you
overcome the fear.

Brian Tracy has a great way to fight doubt. He says, "Don't
wonder whether something is possible - Over and over if you
have to, but ask how can you do it, not whether you can."

And that's worth thinking about.

Source: Mail from my friend