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Overcoming Fear

 

I believe fear is often one of the biggest obstacles to living an abundant life. While the most significant forms of fear vary from person to person, we all have our own keystone fears that trigger anxiety and paralysis. It may be fear of the opinions of others, fear of abandonment, fear of being a fraud, fear of failure, fear of loss … the list goes on and on. And we each have a demon of fear we must fight.

While there are many resources available on overcoming one’s fear, I think we can confuse overcoming fear with the elimination of it. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I do not believe fear ever disappears completely.

Maybe it does not cry out as loud as it once did, but fear’s whisper still remains. It might be more subtle, but the call of fear will never completely go away. We cannot completely shut it up or shut it out.

If we wait for fear to be eliminated, we will always be its slave. Overcoming fear is not exterminating it, it is moving forward despite fear’s voice. It is not the absence of fear, but it is rather the refusal to allow fear to control and immobilize us despite its presence.

The influence of fear may always remain, but its power over us does not have to.

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