What's In Plain Sight

We all have fears—you know, those thoughts that can stop you in your tracks (make you at least hesitate), make your heart race, make you turn away. Yours might be heights or speaking in front of people. Maybe you don’t like to take risks, get germs on you, show too much emotion, or plunge into the deep end of the pool. Maybe it’s spiders.

It can be easy to look at someone else’s fear and say, “Oh, don’t be afraid of that.” From the outside looking in, it’s easy to see that the word “fear” is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real.

But what about your own fears? Different story. Those ones are real. But you can conquer them.

For starters, realize just what it means to conquer a fear. A great quote from Nelson Mandela: “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.”

So how do you triumph over it? Here’s one way: write it down. Write down everything about it that scares you. What misgivings do you have? Then go back and write the answers to every obstacle—write down what you know is true. Read back over that paper every day. Modify it. Add to it. Let it sink in, and let the truths take over. Before you know it, you’ll win.

After all, playing it “safe” never brought anyone to greatness.