"What if you knew that everything that was happening right now
That doesn't fit your ego ideal
Is happening to support you in stepping out of the smallness
Of your darkest thoughts
And into the brilliance of your biggest Dream?"
Debbie Ford ~ "The Shadow Effect"
Accepting and learning from every hardship is not something we do well. Too many times we only learn to fear a repeat. We focus on what we "shouldn't" do instead of focussing on what we "should" do. And this serves to reinforce the fearful ideas we already hold. The bonds that restrict us to a life of fear are regularly maintained by such thoughts. And it is these thoughts that hold us back.
If you think about it, there are only thoughts between our dreams and our failures. Every attempt that falls short of the mark is an opportunity to come closer to your goal. What stops us is the fear that next time will be just like the last. A fair conclusion if you take your past as being your point of reference. Remember that at one stage in your life, you couldn't walk. You couldn't stand and balance. When you tried, you fell repeatedly. Doubtless there were times when you hurt yourself. But you tried again, despite past failures, because you had not yet learnt to fear. You didn't know to be afraid of failure. Your lack of fear allowed you to learn. And eventually you walked, and then you ran. You were free.
Fear is not something in your environment; it is something inside of you. It doesn't exist separately from your thoughts. If you eliminate fear does your environment change? Is it suddenly filled with friendly, supportive people? Do obstacles just disappear? Of course not. But would that matter if you let go of fear? If you weren't afraid would you care what people can or can't do? Would those obstacles be un-testable to you?
Letting go of fear will not make you superhuman. It will not change the world. But it will allow you to learn. It will raise your expectations and release your potential. You'd be more successful, happy, alive and in-touch simply because you'd try harder, live larger and persevere.
Success teaches you little; failure teaches you much. Failure is an opportunity to let go of fear. Take every opportunity you get and as you do so you will undoubtedly be given even more opportunities. You'll soon find though, that you'll be given a lot more success too. At the end of the day, you may find that of all the things you feared, only fear itself was really scary. The rest of it was just a lesson.
