Did you know there's a thief trying to break into your home every day to steal your most valuable possessions? But what’s most amazing is you and I open the door to let him in! You see, what makes this thief so smart is that he knows even better than we do what our most valuable possessions are. So while you and I are busy protecting our money, house, and car; while we’re guarding our title, status, and position of respect; this thief is stealing from us our much more valuable possessions. He’s stealing our peace of mind and happiness, as well as our honesty and good character. He’s taking away our marriage and children. Yet we don’t even know we’ve been robbed!
So when did we open the door to let this thief in to our lives? What’s his name? His name is Fear…Fear of what other people think. And you and I let him rob us when we start surrendering to the pressure of pleasing other people. When we’re afraid that other people won’t like or accept us. So after work, instead of going home to our family and being good, loving parents who spend time with our children, we go out drinking trying to impress our peers and fellow workers.after school each day instead of going home we stick around to play and gist with friends in order to keep them even when its against our Will. You and I let fear in when we don’t stand up for what’s right and true, because we’ll do whatever will make us liked and get us what we want. We’ll lie, cheat, even sacrifice our marriage and children, just to get us what we think will satisfy us.
This smart thief gets us to believe that doing all these things to be liked or rich will finally make us happy. While all the time he’s stealing from us our most valuable things in life! Our only possessions of any real worth. But you can decide right now to once and for all stop this thief. Today you can close and lock the door to fear—fear of what other people think—by opening the door of your heart to the real world of courage.
My younger brother has always had a terrible fear of fast roller coasters. Those rides at amusement parks and fairs that zip around so fast that the people riding them scream the whole way. But recently, my brother decided he was going to ride one no matter how afraid he was. He forced himself to sit next to me on the roller coaster, and I could almost hear his heart beating and racing he was so scared. To tell you the truth, that roller coaster was almost too fast for me! When the ride was finally over and we were leaving, my brother was so happy and proud of himself. He kept saying again and again: “michael, I conquered my fear!”
One of the important secrets to success and happiness, which many people don’t know, is that on the other side of our fear is a much better life for us. It’s only when we face and conquer our fears that we get past them and are free to reach our potential. The great army general, George Patton, said: “Fear kills more people than death.” You see, death kills us only once, but fear kills us over and over again. “It’s better to face danger one time than to live in fear your whole life.” Our fears will just keep chasing us as long as we keep running from them.
A wise man says: “Fear is a warning signal, not for us to close our eyes, but for us to open them wider, so we can face our fear head on to conquer and defeat it.” But if we keep closing our eyes to our fear so we can just stay in our comfort zone, then we’ll end up “buried alive in our comfort zone,” and never really live life to the fullest.
Someone said: “The biggest part of courage is having done it before.” Remember, there’s a first time for everything—whether it’s riding a bike, starting your own business,making new friends or public speaking. There’s no greater feeling of accomplishment and success than running right at your fear and coming out on the other side of it, knowing you beat it. Let's be like an eagle ;"The eagle has no fear of adversity. We need to be like the eagle and have a fearless spirit of a conqueror!”