“The darkness hides the true size of fears and lies.  The truth is the fears are more shadow than reality, so they seem bigger in the dark.  When the light shines into the places inside of you where the fears reside, you start to see them for what they are…illusions.”
~ “The Shack”

If I had 100 people sitting in front of me, all of them would have different fears.  Some would be afraid of the dark, some would be afraid of heights and some would be afraid of their own shadow.  The fears that we allow to reside within us come from our past experiences, most of which we had no conscious control over.  We have an experience and we perceive it in a specific way; each person being different.  Two people could have the exact same experience and come away with two completely different perceptions of what happened.

As we grow older and life happens, we are in control of whether we allow the fears within us to grow or disappear.  We have 2 choices:  we can either make our decisions based in fear or based on our dreams.  Most make their choices based in fear because they get trapped in the fear of choice and freedom.  They are afraid of uncertainty and play the “what if” game constantly in their minds, with the outcome always a negative one.  They are afraid of freedom because as much as we won’t admit it, we like rules and other people telling us what to do.  That way if it doesn’t work out, it’s not our fault…it is theirs and we again slip right by responsibility of our own choices.

I am going to be the thorn in your side today and tell you to STOP!!!  Look at the scenarios you have going through your minds and see them for what they are…STORIES that have been exaggerated and blown up by YOU!  Put on your big boy and big girl pants…it’s time to grow up!  Think for once about what you want in your life…what your dreams are and instead of making excuses…GO GET IT!  Forget the fear!  It is False Evidence Appearing Real…it is only as real as you make it in your mind.  Once you take action, the fear all of a sudden is not so large.

I had a coach once give me a wakeup call and say to me, “Chris, instead of waiting for your ship to come in and making excuse after excuse as to why you can’t, swim out to the damn ship and make it happen!”  Ok, so I didn’t speak to him for 3 days after that but I kiss the ground he walks on now because he kicked my butt to get me moving past my fears and excuses.

Make a list of 7 things you feel are impossible for you to accomplish.  I call it the “7 Impossible Things” exercise (you’ll see this in my new book coming out soon!).  For each “impossible” thing, list in one column how it CAN’T happen and then in the column next to it list how it CAN happen.  Brainstorm for ideas and allow yourself to go wild!  Don’t worry about the “how,” just list what comes to mind.  The details always work themselves out.

Then, pick one thing on your list and start to take action.  Do one thing daily that frightens you and you will soon see that your fears are nothing but a well thought out illusion created by the one and only you, that are keeping you from your dreams…and most importantly, keeping you from the life you were meant to live:  one of beauty, grace, abundance, serenity and joy.

Just do it!

All wet behind the ears as I swim out to my ship,

Chris

For more information about Chris Sopa International, Inc. go to www.ChrisSopa.com.