J. Eric Lybarger

If you just remember that fear is the final hurdle to being on the path of your dreams, you will be able to embrace the fear instead of letting it stop you. Fear doesn’t talk to us in any straightforward language. It does not say to us, It is only fear, so go ahead and do the thing you have in mind. It screams to us that the pain of failure is unbearable, so don’t even try. It screams, you can’t do it. It screams it won’t work. It screams, stop where you are, AND WE DO!I remember someone saying to me once that “fear is nothing more than an uneasy feeling in your gut.” If that is the worst that fear can do, then it is nothing. But we build the fear to be a giant unsurmountable wall. How many more great inventions would we have if someone had not been stopped by fear? How many cures to disease? How many successful businesses, how many more dreams realized? It is an unknown, because fear does not keep score or track statistics. It is a silent killer that just keeps claiming its victories before humbly moving on to its next victim.Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.- Ralph Waldo EmersonYes, our fears help us to stay alive. When you look before crossing the road to see a truck speeding towards you, it prevents you from stepping out into the street and being oliterated. But when we look out into the future as to how an idea we have will play out, fear causes us only to imagine the truck coming rather than the the possibility of success. Fear tells us to not try. It looks through our past and shows us all the times that we and others have failed, and projects that into our idea of the future. It is an unfounded thought, which means we have the choice to see it one of two different lights: we can choose to perceive only the danger and let that uneasy feeling in our gut stop us. Or we can decide to see it as possible. Fear pokes us to see it fear’s way, but we do have the choice to see it another way. We can “reason it out” as to what is the worst that can happen. Are we afraid of feeling embarrassed or ashamed if something doesn't work? That someone might laugh at us, mock us, and relish in the fact that we failed?Well, we have two weapons against fear.Rationalize it away to enable yourself to move forward in spite of the fear. (It's only a feeling in your gut anyway; what's the worst that can happen?) The fear will subside as you do the thing you are supposed to do.Control our thoughts about fear, and move forward with the thought, “Yeah, but what if it does work?”The powerful truth is that no one can make you feel anything. We make ourselves feel however we feel, including when we feel fear. Realize that this is just a feeling that we can conquer when we are at least brave against fear. If we remember that fear is the final hurdle to the path of our goals, then we at least find the possibility to succeed. You have prepared your whole life and are ready for your success. Don’t let the final hurdle of fear stop you. Decide to jump over it. Stare down the fear hurdle, and realize, THE CHOICE IS YOURS, NOT FEAR'S. Refuse to be one of fear's unwritten statistics. Rationalize forward. Remember that the fear you feel is only telling you to make a choice. You control your thoughts, and they control your destiny.Do it in spite of the fear. Do it because success is on the other side of fear. Don’t let the final hurdle seem bigger than your dreams.