I know everyone has challenges. There are people all around the world who have experienced and are experiencing tragedies and may be struggling with how to move forward. Some of you may be struggling with fears about loved ones who are sick. Perhaps you are having relationship, emotional or financial challenges. Maybe you are concerned about your job security or you are afraid that you are not having the results you deserve. I do not want to trivialize the seriousness of your specific challenges. It is my hope that perhaps some of my personal experience and perspective may provide a small dose of help and hope to one of you in need.
During these difficult times it is easy to complain to others about our condition. Sometimes we do this to garner sympathy from others, or just get a burden off our chest. It is natural for us to desire the support and understanding of people close to us. It is important that we do not dwell on our problems excessively or let our fears consume our thoughts. When we do, we actually help bring about the thing that we fear. It is possible that by sharing our fears too much, we may reinforce and strengthen those fears. This may also cause fearful thoughts and behaviors in others.
I do believe it is good to reach out in our times of challenge. However, I submit that we must avoid the negative complaining that fuels fear and focus on thoughts and actions that build hope. For example, a co-worker recently asked each of us at work to think positive thoughts or pray for her mother who was receiving her final chemo-therapy treatment and check up for cancer. I know my friend was concerned about her mother and the chance that her cancer would persist. However, instead of focusing on the fact that the cancer may persist, she focused on getting everyone around thinking that her mother’s health would improve. When in fact it did, her hope, faith, and actions were rewarded.
I understand that our faith may not always be rewarded with these positive outcomes. I believe our hopefully positive outlook must persist regardless of the outcome. This will allow us to have the greatest fulfillment in our life. It will also reinforce the attitude that we need to courageously face the challenges of life. We will get through the difficulties of life that we will all experience. When we face our fears and difficulties with hope and faith, we will ACT in ways that will help us begin to have the results we desire. It is in action based on hope and faith that enables us to create: great relationships, health, wealth, confidence, happiness, and joy.
Choose one or two of the thoughts below, print them out and display it as a reminder to move forward with hope and faith. Recite them as a daily affirmation:
“We come this way but once. We can either tiptoe through life and hope that we get to death without being too badly bruised or we can live a full, complete life achieving our goals and realizing our wildest dreams”. -Bob Proctor
“I have insecurities. But whatever I’m insecure about, I don’t dissect it, but I’ll go after it and say, ‘what am I afraid of?’ I bet the average successful person can tell you they’ve failed so much more than they’ve had success. I’ve had far more failures than I’ve had successes. With every commercial I’ve gotten, there were 200 I didn’t get. You have to go after what you are afraid of”. -Kevin Sorbo
“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.” —Helen Keller
“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.” —Henry Ford
“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” —Rosa Parks
“Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.” —Napoleon Hill
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” —Nelson Mandela
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” —Marie Curie
“Being brave isn’t the absence of fear. Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it.” —Bear Grylls
“Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.” —Babe Ruth
“Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?” —Confucius
“Action cures fear, inaction creates terror.” —Douglas Horton
“Do the thing you fear and keep doing it… that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.” —Dale Carnegie
“Don’t give up when the pressure mounts. Face your doubts. Master your fears”. –Jeffrey R. Holland
“Don’t take counsel from your fears”. –James E. Faust
“No one likes to fail [but] we mortals do not become champions without making mistakes”. –Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward”. –St. Paul
Face your fears!
The author Spencer Horn is the President of Altium Leadership. Additional articles which may interest you: How To Create Success From Failure; Learn From Mistakes; The Results Killing Virus; Silence Your Saboteur
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