Fear Part 3
“Fear…it motivates some while it paralyzes others. Your ability to face AND control fear will determine how it affects your life as well as the level of success you achieve…” — Rick Cox
Napoleon Hill, in his search to discover the reasons some were successful and others were not found a vast majority fell victim to fear. His research continued until he discovered there were six basic fears, which could paralyze us from becoming all we were meant to be. We covered three of the six basic fears in Part 2 and will here in Part 3, cover the remaining three.
The Fear of Ill Health can also be called hypochondria and is so called by the medical industry. Like faith attracts the positive, fear attracts the negative. What you are focused on is what you will attract and thus if that which you fear is what you are focused on then you will attract the very thing you fear. If you fear ill then you will focus on ill health, which means you have a very good chance of having ill health.
You will find those with this kind of fear are always engrossed in negative talk whether with themselves or to others. They conjure up imaginary diseases and often get them. Oddly enough these people seldom exercise and thus they wind up being susceptible to many ills as a result of their lack of physical exertion. Besides, physical exertion requires mental focus and discipline which over time will help one set and reach goals. These goals are never set let alone reached by those that are not self-disciplined.
Overcoming the Fear of Ill Health is or is not as easy as being disciplined and focused on good health. The truth is, discipline and focus is not easy, but if you will take a little time each day to discipline your thoughts and focus on that which is healthy, then health will be the result. And, not only will your health improve, the rest of your life will as well.
The Fear of Criticism can rob you of your initiative, strip you of your creative imagination, and limit your ability to be yourself as well as take away your self-reliance. It is often the cause of nervousness and timidity in conversations and in the meeting of new people. It can be the cause of poor body posture as well as poor memory. It can make you indecisive, remove your personal charm, have you agreeing with others to get their approval even though you don’t particularly believe as such and make you unable to express a definite opinion for fear of criticism.
It may have you spending more than you make in order to “FIT IN” with others. It can give you a serious inferiority complex causing you to do all that is necessary to impress those around you, but all the while driving others away. It will remove your self-starter personality or initiative and thus keep you from seeing and taking advantage of opportunities. It will cause you to lack confidence in your own ideas. It may cause deceit in your speech and in your actions with the result that those around you do their best to avoid you. The result of this avoidance increases your fear of criticism and only makes things worse by also stripping you of your ambition causing you to become mentally and physically lazy due to the fact you see no reason to try because you will only be criticized.
The cure for the Fear of Criticism is to take the approach spoken of by Jim Rohn. He said to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. This was the same Paul the apostle said to Timothy when he told him to, “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed…” Timothy was young and as such was being criticized for not being experienced or old enough to know what he should to have the position he held so Paul told him to study and become what it takes to attract the acceptance and praise and supplant the criticism. In essence he was telling Timothy to work harder on himself than he was on anything else and the criticism would cease. This is what we must do as well.
The Fear of Poverty is the second of the two worst fears. This fear will have you dwelling on lack and that which comes along with it. Because of fear and depending on the depth to which you allow it to dominate, you may wind up in abject poverty and devoid of the power to get out. All predominant thoughts once mixed with emotion have the ability or power to attract that for which you are thinking. The fear of poverty can cause one to develop indifference toward life and success bringing about a lack of ambition, a tolerance and acceptance of poverty, mental and physical laziness, and a lack of imagination, enthusiasm, and self-control. You may have noticed nearly all six of these fears have many of the same symptoms.
The fear of poverty also causes one to let others do their thinking while they sit on the fence. It is impossible to get ahead or be successful if others are setting your goals and objectives for you. You will only get the crumbs left over from what they leave on the floor or table. You will be filled with doubt making excuses to cover and explain your failures. You will envy and criticize all that are successful.
Most importantly, you will be filled with worry and to deal with this you will constantly find fault in those around you, neglect your own personal appearance, while carrying a frown most of the time, showing a lack of poise and full of anxiety. When filled with this fear you will become a procrastinator always putting off to tomorrow that which should be done today. You will be found working on your excuses for your lack of productivity rather than working on yourself to become better and more productive. It will always be the fault of those around you and when asked why you don’t make prompt decisions you will say you are simply being cautious. The truth is you are fearful of making a wrong decision for over caution is simply fear.
Overcoming this fear is only possible when you take control of your own future and decide not to leave it in the hands of anyone else. You must make a quality decision to change your future through self-discipline and study learning to focus on what you want rather than what you fear. You must recognize you and you alone are responsible for where you and why you are where you are right now. In doing so, you will put yourself on the road to recovery and will in no time find yourself back in the driver’s seat to your own full and successful life.
Best of LUCK as you
Labor Under Correct Knowledge…
Respectfully,
Rick Cox