Fear

As you prepare to take your first steps, could there possibly be something holding you back?

Maybe you have heard the phrase, "false evidence appearing real." It is a common acronym made from the one word that can and will stand in your path to success. We all suffer from fear in one form or another. Sometimes, overcoming fear is as simple as programming the body to perform the motions that the mind is resisting. Other times, the fear can be so crippling that it takes a tremendous breakthrough - even revisiting old events or memories that have been buried for years - in order to overcome its grasp. Unfortunately, many people never overcome their fears, and remain a victim of them all of their lives. Are you a victim, or a victor?

When I began working with others to help them achieve physique transformations in the year 2000, I discovered an amazing thing. Some people literally sabotaged their own progress out of fear. What was more incredible to me is exactly what their fear was: a fear of their own success! Even when the science works - when the changes in nutrition and training help a person begin to lose fat - if they are not prepared to change on the inside, they can become crippled by the change. These people would watch the pounds melt away, and suddenly the fear would paralyze them. They had spent so long hiding behind the extra weight and using their obesity as a shield to the world, that when that wall began to crumble they had nowhere to run.

I vividly recall a night when I pressed my body against my wife's and she began to softly cry. When I asked her what was wrong, she replied that I felt like a different person. She wasn't used to feeling my bones or contours, only the softness of my fat. Suddenly, her world was changing and she had not completely adjusted to it. I realized that I, too, had not kept pace with the physical changes. I did not know how to take compliments, and would often simply stammer or make small talk when someone would comment on my progress. I was not so much afraid of my success as I was afraid of the change in my life and not knowing how to live with it.

Even though I successfully overcame those fears early on, another type of fear limited my ability to grow my own career: a fear of my ability to become a successful entrepreneur. Despite having run a thriving part-time training Business, and being able from the start to charge nearly double the average, local rate due to the quality of service that I provided, I did not think I had what it took to do well. After writing countless articles and receiving feedback from numerous readers, I still believed I was not ready to submit my articles to publications or attempt to write a book. Fear was sucking the life out of me!

It was only recently that I began to look at fear a new way.

An interesting thought occurred to me: simply changing my perception could empower me to overcome my fears and break through to new levels. The concept is quite simple. I realized that fear and faith are mutually exclusive. They occupy the same space in our lives. And we cannot have both in the same space at the same time - it is either one or the other.

Fear is an emotion related to failure. It is the belief that something is not worth trying because of the negative outcomes that are possible. Fear is a learned emotion. It takes the "space" ordinarily occupied by faith, and perverts it into something that holds us back. If you are not convinced, just take a look at a child learning to walk. Often, as they take those first tentative steps, they may do something that we, in all our wisdom, would consider failure. They fall. Or they bump into something. Or they are forced to grab hold of something to steady themselves. All of these actions are not pleasant, and they are not the intended result. For the child, however, what we would call "failure" is an integral component of their success.

The child does not give up. It does not occur to them that if they are going to fall, they should simply not try to walk. They might bump their head, but after the tears are dried and the bump has gone away, they will stand on their two wobbly legs once again and attempt the feat. In fact, children a