My Riffs

Fear fails us.  Fear is meant to inform us, but it fails us when it drives us. 

Fear renders us inoperable.  We become paralyzed by fear.  Fear can be used as a tool to teach us, caution us and help us.  But it has to be kept in check. Logic has to be applied against it. Fears are usually oversized in comparison to their truth.  Use fear and don’t let it use you. Control fear, don’t allow it to control you. 

We can only hold so much. But we really don’t like letting go do we? We may suspect we can hold something better but we are too scared to let go of what we’re already holding. Oftentimes we choose what we know over what we could be. Fear of letting go holds too many back from great destiny's. 

Fear holds us back from so much life. If we let fear grow it will choke our lives to a place where we’re barely living. Fear needs to be kept under control and uprooted so it doesn’t grip and choke all the life from us. 

Fear paralyzes. The more we listen to fear, the less we live. We can be fearless and smart. You don't have to throw away all smarts when you're fearless. Most fears aren't even rational or likely. But they render us as if they were. Overcoming fear can be a long process but is worth it. Keep moving in the direction of love!

What we’re most afraid of, owns us. Overcoming a fear is overcoming what owns us. 

If you're afraid, identify the lie. There will be one there somewhere. 

You can have fear or faith in your drivers seat. Letting fear drive won’t minimize the amount of accidents you get in though. Fear leads to as many or more accidents. Faith will lead to fewer and more recoverable incidents. 

The more afraid we get the poorer we think. Fear is more often than not a lie. When we entertain it we start a self propelled downward spiral of cognitive decline. It’s best to cut off fear at the pass. If it’s always proved to be a lie, it will always continue to be a lie.

As you get older (and hopefully wiser) your fears change. You fear different things. It doesn't mean you live in fear but the things you do fear change. And you still have to manage your fears as you get older. You fear chasing the wrong things. You fear losing your health. You fear losing your means to provide. A lot of the things we fear we cannot control, and it's wise to do our best to alleviate those fears. But a healthy fear of wasting time or chasing the wrong things is a good thing. We can't control certain things about our health, but we can control where we put our time and energy. It's okay to be afraid of wasting time and finite resources. But we should be fearful to the point of being paralyzed. 

I recently heard it said fear is the result of believing a lie. That means fear is unwarranted. And in order to eliminate fear, we have to identify the underlying lie.

What if we really examined our fears and checked their validity? We would find under scrutiny most of them wouldn’t hold up.  So scrutinize your fears. 

Fear is the greatest inhibitor there is. Fear reduces extraordinary people into something far beneath their purpose. Fear steals life. Fear steals joy. Fear steals purpose. Fear steals friendships and relationships. The good news is though: fear is a liar. Call fear out on it’s lies. Don’t let it get away with robbing you of who you are.

Each of us have the ability to propagate fear or faith. Propagating fear doesn't help anything or anyone. I think the choice is simple on what we should propagate.

We're literally living in unprecedented times today. Don't sit back and waste away this time. There is so much learning to be done right now. What are you learning about? I'm learning about what I'm truly afraid of. I'm learning what's truly valuable to me. I'm learning how prepared I am for emergencies. I'm learning about some of my weaknesses. I'm learning how to sift through information. I'm learning how to slow down. I'm learning some patience. I'm learning what my priorities have been and what they should be. I'm learning about how the world works (somewhat, cause it's complex beyond understanding). I'm learning a lot about other people. I'm learning how to be uncomfortable. I'm learning how to not take so many things for granted. I'm learning to navigate through complex situations way out of my control. Don't let this opportunity to learn and grow pass you by. Don't spend this time ...

What does worry accomplish? Nothing. Concern is worry in moderation. Worry is concern overdone.

- lies - holds us back - stands between us and success - makes us judge others - makes us jealous If you can put a lid on your fear you can do anything.

You can't be brave if you're not first afraid. Fear can be crippling, but it also can be a tool we can use in our favour. Fear can push us to do something great and it can inspire bravery. Fear is only as strong as we let it be. The bigger the fear the bigger the potential greatness. The bigger the fear the bigger the potential for bravery.

Our greatest fears seem to rarely manifest in reality. But we sure do obsesses over them. The energy we invest into our fears doesn't move us ahead, it keeps us back. Fear is a tool. But it's not one that needs much energy invested into it. That energy should be put into good possibilities rather than fears.

Fear cannot be boiled down to two things, but for today, let's look at two major sides of fear. 1. Fear as the result of believing a lie. 2. Fear as the opportunity to gain something. Many, many fears are the result of buying into a lie. The lies vary quite drastically from "I'm not good enough" to "that's not possible" and even to "people will think bad things about you if...". These types of fears should just be discarded. It's often hard to filter out what's truth and isn't when it comes to the lies we have often told ourselves though. It takes usually a trusted outside source to help filter those out. The second side of fear is in the potential. The potential in fear is quite surprising. When we fear something, we are faced with an opportunity. Usually an opportunity to gain something of value. The value could again range from "victory over something that has held us back" or to "accomplish something ...