Every thought you have is magnified a MILLION times
Every thought you have, whether it's fear or faith or joy, is magnified more than a million times because all the cells in your body instantly get the signal from your brain cells and waves.
This is why a person feels "something funny" in the stomach when he or she is nervous. This is rather obvious when you watch people about to make a public speech and they look like they're trembling.
This is why it is extremely important to catch, as early as possible, any fearful thought you might have, and to STOP that thought immediately. If you don't stop that fearful thought within a fraction of a second, it will instantly propagate throughout your entire body and lead to the very negative outcomes you were afraid of.
Bodhi, the mystical Zen surfer played by Patrick Swayze in Oliver Stone's movie PointBreak, says a brilliant line: "Fear makes you hesitate, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true."
Sometimes, fear even makes you panic, and when you panic, you lose your mind.
It's important to understand fear because it's the only thing that can really stop a person on the path to great success, wealth and happiness.
Fear is a spectrum, and at one end, we have great fear such as when you suddenly see a tiger come out of a bush and he looks like he hasn't eaten for days.
I hope you never find yourself in that situation!
At the other end, we have a more subtle, more devious kind of fear. This fear is invisible and barely perceptible. You might have this fear and NOT know that you have it.
In other words, this second sort of fear is more of an intellectual paralysis, whereas the first sort of fear is an emotional response.
It's useful to think of this subtle, undetectable fear as the limit or boundary of your self-confidence.
How do you make this fear visible and detectable, so you can deal with it or kill it?
Create thought experiments.
For example, if I were to make you Vice President of one of my companies, how would you feel?
Remember what we discussed at the beginning of this post: every thought you have is magnified one million times.
So your first thought is either "Sure, I'll do it! This sounds very exciting!" or "Er, I don't think I have the qualifications..."
One response is based on faith, the other is based on fear.
Most people face difficulties in life because they do not realize the power of thoughts to build or destroy their own lives, careers, businesses, even marriages.
People often think carelessly or let other people introduce fearful thoughts into their minds.
For example, you might be excited by an idea you just had, so you share it with a friend or sibling. He then says, "I don't want to discourage you, but..."
That's a sign that he's about to introduce fearful thoughts into your mind, and my advice is to turn around and run as fast as you can!
People who are "well meaning" will usually help you to dig your own grave. Similarly, people with "good intentions" will usually lead you to disastrous results.
This may sound a bit harsh, yet a person who wants to succeed must realize that only one out of 20 people is positive. 95% of people are negative and are quite unconscious of the effects of fear on one's self-concept and self-esteem. Without self-esteem, there is no solid foundation for happiness or achievement.
Self-esteem begins when you decide, once and for all, that you will NEVER, EVER entertain any self-doubt, fear, remorse, guilt, shame, regret, etc. in your mind -- not even for a fraction of a second. They are self-defeating thoughts that will be instantly magnified a million times throughout your body and once they do proliferate in that manner, it then becomes extremely difficult to get rid of them.
It's better and much easier to kill the first thought of fear, than to have to fight one million mini-fears spread out among the cells of your body.
If you are a parent, may I suggest forwarding this post to your teenage kids. I will write more about how to fight fears and build self-confidence.
This is why a person feels "something funny" in the stomach when he or she is nervous. This is rather obvious when you watch people about to make a public speech and they look like they're trembling.
This is why it is extremely important to catch, as early as possible, any fearful thought you might have, and to STOP that thought immediately. If you don't stop that fearful thought within a fraction of a second, it will instantly propagate throughout your entire body and lead to the very negative outcomes you were afraid of.
Bodhi, the mystical Zen surfer played by Patrick Swayze in Oliver Stone's movie PointBreak, says a brilliant line: "Fear makes you hesitate, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true."
Sometimes, fear even makes you panic, and when you panic, you lose your mind.
It's important to understand fear because it's the only thing that can really stop a person on the path to great success, wealth and happiness.
Fear is a spectrum, and at one end, we have great fear such as when you suddenly see a tiger come out of a bush and he looks like he hasn't eaten for days.
I hope you never find yourself in that situation!
At the other end, we have a more subtle, more devious kind of fear. This fear is invisible and barely perceptible. You might have this fear and NOT know that you have it.
In other words, this second sort of fear is more of an intellectual paralysis, whereas the first sort of fear is an emotional response.
It's useful to think of this subtle, undetectable fear as the limit or boundary of your self-confidence.
How do you make this fear visible and detectable, so you can deal with it or kill it?
Create thought experiments.
For example, if I were to make you Vice President of one of my companies, how would you feel?
Remember what we discussed at the beginning of this post: every thought you have is magnified one million times.
So your first thought is either "Sure, I'll do it! This sounds very exciting!" or "Er, I don't think I have the qualifications..."
One response is based on faith, the other is based on fear.
Most people face difficulties in life because they do not realize the power of thoughts to build or destroy their own lives, careers, businesses, even marriages.
People often think carelessly or let other people introduce fearful thoughts into their minds.
For example, you might be excited by an idea you just had, so you share it with a friend or sibling. He then says, "I don't want to discourage you, but..."
That's a sign that he's about to introduce fearful thoughts into your mind, and my advice is to turn around and run as fast as you can!
People who are "well meaning" will usually help you to dig your own grave. Similarly, people with "good intentions" will usually lead you to disastrous results.
This may sound a bit harsh, yet a person who wants to succeed must realize that only one out of 20 people is positive. 95% of people are negative and are quite unconscious of the effects of fear on one's self-concept and self-esteem. Without self-esteem, there is no solid foundation for happiness or achievement.
Self-esteem begins when you decide, once and for all, that you will NEVER, EVER entertain any self-doubt, fear, remorse, guilt, shame, regret, etc. in your mind -- not even for a fraction of a second. They are self-defeating thoughts that will be instantly magnified a million times throughout your body and once they do proliferate in that manner, it then becomes extremely difficult to get rid of them.
It's better and much easier to kill the first thought of fear, than to have to fight one million mini-fears spread out among the cells of your body.
If you are a parent, may I suggest forwarding this post to your teenage kids. I will write more about how to fight fears and build self-confidence.
posted by Super Peter at 9:40 AM
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