Fear Is The Mind Killer

I was watching the movie "Dune", by Frank Herbert the other day and there is a very famous line known as the Litany against Fear that goes like this:

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

The reason why this is so important is that most people do not make the right decisions about thier careers or companies MOSTLY out of fear. They are afraid of being wrong, of failure and rejection, or making themselves better, of growing, or of the unknown, or of having to start over, or of really getting the success they deserve.

Right now the Economy is in the grips of FEAR. Companies are afraid to hire employees, make purchases, create new products, start new ventures. Governments are afraid of doing something other than throw massive amounts of money at perceived problems. The only thing I know for sure is that it is not going to be Big Business or Big Government or Big Banks that get us out of this mess. No, the only people who are not afraid or who can face their fear head on are entrepreneurs and small business owners. They know that in order to survive and grow is to just seize the day.

Believe it or not, now is the time to actually get out of your fear and start that new business or implement that new idea. As Kauffman president Carl Schramm replied when asked about reasons to be cheerful concerning the demise of large companies, his reply was:

"The most important message of our research is: Don't despair. Good things grow even in the darkest times. And not all recessions are the same. Some are the aftermath of euphoria-driven speculation, like the 2001 downturn. Others -- like this one -- are debt- and finance-led. Some recessions mark breaks in economic development. The early 1980s, for example, marked the decisive transition from the industrial to the knowledge economy. But most of this becomes apparent in hindsight, and no entrepreneur is going to wait for the dust to settle. The energy crunch has given the nudge to car companies like Tesla. And nascent entrepreneurs may be waiting to pick up business left behind by GM and Chrysler."

If FEAR is keeping you from growing, then you are in a cage of your own making and NOT living the life you are capable of enjoying. Yes, Fear is a Mind Killer. It is the little death! Yes, even I occasionally have been trapped in my own cage of Fear, and was afraid to go into that place of the unknown. I imaged it to be risky, evil, wicked, painful, and lonely. I did not realize that I am the captain of my destiny, and Fear was taking that power away from me. Everyone is afraid at some time in their lives, it is just that the people who find true success are able to get past that fear. Yes, FEAR is a mind killer. It freezes us in a place where at any other time we would not want to be.

Getting past this Fear is scary, it is hard, it takes work and help to get through it, but trust me it is worth it. If you want to get to future you deserve, then face and then abandon your fears of success. Yes, I said success. I know it is so much easier to stay in a bad, or unfulfilling situation, or not try to go out and be the very best you can be, but trust me, in the long run you REALLY wished you had taken that first step into a better life. Do it, and do it now! Realize that fear is holding you back. Your fear of actually being successful often is much greater than that of failure, because success is often such a LARGE unknown to most of us.

Trust that the future will be better and start working to make it so. Fear is ONLY a little death if you let it stay within you. Let it go, and go out and create the success you deserve.

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