Let me be clear here. There is a good type of fear that we have in our lives that helps us know what to avoid. We have a fear that keeps us from bodily harm and tells us things like, "Don't touch that hot stove because you might get burnt." We have some healthy fears in our lives, but today I want to talk about a different fear. I want to talk about the fear that prevents us from being everything that we were created to be. Fear acts like the barrier that keeps us from our greatness.
Let's define fear so we know exactly what I am talking about. I like to define fear as creating a negative result from a situation that you haven't even experienced yet. The problem with fear is that it convinces us that we are going to fail before we have ever had the chance to try. What is dumb about that and so wrong among other things is that not trying is just as bad as failing. In fact, trying and failing is even better than not trying at all, because at least you gave it a shot. But fear tries to convince you that giving it a shot is not the right move. Fear tries to convince you that you won't have any chance at winning so it is a fool's game to try.
A lot of times when we look back and try to figure out why we are so fearful of something we will find that it is because of some kind of past experience where we learned how to be fearful. Sometimes something will happen to us and it is like a seed is planted into us that teaches us to be fearful whenever anything like this comes up in the future. Maybe we have a relationship that does not go well in our lives and so that seed is planted in us and in the future we believe that we will always run into trouble with relationships so we become fearful to ever try in a relationship again.
The way you overcome fear is you tell yourself that fear is lying to you. You have what it takes to go head to head with whatever is standing in front of you. Fear will tell you that you don't. Fear will tell you that trying will only lead to failure and embarrassment, but if you at least tried then there is nothing to be embarrassed about. You have got to stop believing the lies that fear feeds you about failure. Just because you had a problem with something in the past does not mean that you are going to continue to have problems with that same thing in the future. You always have a chance to succeed. Every chance is a new chance. You are not doomed to repeat the same mistakes. So work hard, don't stop trying, and don't believe fear's lies.
It all starts with you.
